Trevor Lawrence defends Dabo Swinney‘s Football Matters shirt: ‘Not mocking Black Lives Matter’

Trevor Lawrence comes to Dabo Swinney’s defense .

Much has been made about the “Football Matters” t-shirt Dabo Swinney keeps wearing.

The Clemson football coach has worn a navy blue t-shirt with that phrase emblazoned across his chest. Many people are taking that as a sign of disrespect to the Black Lives Matter movement happening across the United States of America. Though Swinney has been criticized on BLM matters the last week or so, his quarterback Trevor Lawrence has come to his coach’s defense.

“Coach Swinney’s shirt, in any way, is not mocking the Black Lives Matter movement.” tweeted Lawrence over the weekend. “He has been wearing the shirt for months in meetings.”

While football does matter, as it is a unifier to bring people of all walks of life together to work towards a common goal, it hasn’t stopped people from piling on the Clemson head football coach the last several days. Perhaps Lawrence going to bat for his head coach on this non-story will bring a swift end to this t-shirt critique?

Trevor Lawrence defends Dabo Swinney’s “Football Matters” t-shirt.

Swinney had been silent about the George Floyd murder protests last week but did address the topic at hand several days ago. Though it was addressed by Swinney, former players of his like Tajh Boyd weighed in on his former coach’s comments. The bummer in it all was his press conference was overshadowed by him saying Justyn Ross would be out for the 2020 season.

Clemson has a great chance at going undefeated this season, en route to a third national championship in five seasons. However, it has not been anything close to a quiet offseason for the Tigers football program. Swinney has been right at the center of it all. This will also be Lawernce’s last season in school, as he will be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft when he declares.

Though we live in very much a pile-in culture, and Swinney does deserve some flak for the things he says and does at times, this is not the time and place or the reason to get your feathers ruffled by the Clemson football head coach. It’s a shirt he’s been wearing to meetings for months and has nothing to do with mocking the very important Black Lives Matter movement.

“Football Matters” to Dabo Swinney, but let’s not rake him over the coals over a stupid t-shirt.

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