Can we stop with the Dabo Swinney criticism now?

Dabo Swinney’s speech on Saturday night shows his true colors with BLM.

Dabo Swinney had been under fire regarding his response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Clemson football coach had been criticized by national media pundits like ESPN’s Paul Finebaum and FS1’s Skip Bayless for saying things like he’s “just another football coach” and wearing “Football Matters” t-shirts during an incredibly important time for our country. While his star quarterback Trevor Lawrence shined as a leader, Swinney had his honestly questioned.

But when Lawrence and three of his teammates Cornell Powell, Darien Rencher and Mike Jones Jr. organized a demonstration on the Clemson campus Saturday evening, we just had a feeling the funky head football coach would make an appearance. Thankfully, Swinney gave us the speech we needed to hear from him in these trying times. The Dabo criticism regarding BLM is finally over.

Swinney finally got what this is all about. It was an emotional speech out of him with him saying, “I believe with all my heart that God stopped the world in 2020 so that we would have perfect vision and clearly see the social and racial injustices and the changes that need to occur in our society.” His message came from the heart and it was what we were hoping he’d say all along.

The Dabo Swinney BLM criticism must be over after his speech Saturday.

Rencher later spoke on The Packer and Durham Show on The ACC Network of his head football coach saying, “He’s a great man. He really is standing beside, understanding, listening, and supporting his black players through this time.” Rencher wasn’t the first Clemson player, past or present, to defend Swinney on accusations of racism, but Dabo’s speech removed all doubt.

Swinney is proof that we can all learn and get better as human beings during this social justice awakening our country is going through. We’re not perfect and we all make mistakes. It’s because we’re human. Swinney deserved to be criticized for not taking this movement seriously in the onset, but we’re done with raking him over the coals over it. He’s doing his best to get better.

With players and coaches uniting for a cause we can all get behind, Clemson is moving forward to win not just on the field, but triumphantly off it as well. Other programs have organized protests or registered all their players to vote. These are all positive signs that things will hopefully begin to change. But with the Clemson demonstration, that was a major an undeniable catalyst for change.

Swinney no longer needs to be criticized for being tone-deaf because he showed he’s getting it.

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