Football Unifies: Speech from Coach Swinney

Audio from a speech given by Clemson Football Head Coach Dabo Swinney to state representatives at the South Carolina State House on February 17, 2017 in Columbia, S.C.

“Football unifies.

In a world that’s very divided, nothing brings people together like football.

Everybody loves some chips and dip. Everybody loves to come together.

Football brings race, religion, backgrounds, neighborhoods, bank accounts — it just breaks all that stuff down and brings people together and makes them brothers.

When you put that helmet on, you don’t care what his religion is or whether he’s a Democrat or a Republican or whatever — hey, get your job done. That’s what football does.

And I’ve seen it — 85,000 people show up in Death Valley — Monday thru Friday, a lot of them probably wouldn’t speak to each other because of the barriers of society. But you let the Tigers score? They’re hugging necks, they’re jumping on top of each other, they’re saying, ‘hey, you want to stop by my tailgate?’ They got the Paw on, ‘come on by!'”

And that’s the beauty of football.

Football unifies.”