Last week Wisconsin based Freedom from Religion Foundation whose goal is to main a separation of church and state filed a complaint against Clemson for what they called “Christian worship” being interwoven into the Clemson football program.
Earlier today, Clemson Head Coach issued this statement regarding the matter:
Over the past week or two, there has been a lot of discussion of my faith. We have three rules in our program that everybody must follow: (1) players must go to class, (2) they must give a good effort and (3) they must be good citizens. It is as simple as that.
I have recruited and coached players of many different faiths. Players of any faith or no faith at all are welcome in our program. All we require in the recruitment of any player is that he must be a great player at his position, meet the academic requirements, and have good character.
Recruiting is very personal. Recruits and their families want – and deserve – to know who you are as a person, not just what kind of coach you are. I try to be a good example to others, and I work hard to live my life according to my faith. I am proud of the great success we have had in developing good players and good men at Clemson. We win at the highest level and we graduate players who excel on the field and in life because of their time in Death Valley. I want to thank Clemson University and all the people who have reached out to offer their support and encouragement over the past few weeks.
At the end of the day, as long as Swinney isn’t forcing players to go to church, he should be ok. There is a fine line between living your life according to your faith and pushing it on others though, so I would hope everyone involved continues to remember that.