There are very few things more enjoyable in life than hearing a big-time coach go on an out-of-control rant in front of the media. There’s something voyeuristic that makes it one of life’s guilty pleasures, kind of like watching a fight on Real Housewives, only about sports. And unlike reality television, it’s totally unscripted. Some of the best have been Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy screaming about he wanted a reporter to attack him because he’s a 40-year-old man, or San Francisco coach Mike Singletary complaining about how he’d rather play with 10 players than have Vernon Davis on the field, or really any time Jim Mora gets in front of a microphone. And of course the underappreciated gold standard, when Lamar head basketball coach Pat Knight accused his players of taking drugs.
We can now add to that list Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney, who Monday during a live radio show got a bit heated towards one of the callers, who criticized Swinney for his coaching, his hires, and for earning $10 million a year with a 4-4 record. To that, Swinney unloaded, reminding the caller that they’ve had 12 ten win seasons in a row, two national titles in seven years, and that people like him – uninformed, ungrateful, and rude – they are the problem. Swinney added a whole bunch more, like how he’s been a successful husband and father, and if this guy doesn’t want to be a fan, that fine. The rant went on for a while and continued on Tuesday when Swinney backed up his comments, saying that while most of Clemson’s fans are great, a small percentage aren’t – and they have absolutely no idea how hard winning is, which is undoubtedly true.
This isn’t the first time Swinney has been outspoken. He’s spoken openly against players making money from name, image, and likeness; he’s been against the transfer portal; he spoke out against Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem; and he’s inserted Christ into public statements that had nothing to do with religion. So Dabo Swinney is comfortable making his point. And perhaps as long as Clemson stood atop the college football landscape, which along with Alabama they have for the past several years, none of that really mattered. Perhaps the same won’t be true if Clemson falls from its lofty perch, with Florida State currently setting the standard in an otherwise unremarkable ACC.
But leaving aside whether Dabo will get his comeuppance, which I know several people in college football would like to see, there are a couple of more general questions. First, should college coaches be lambasted for having a rant every now and then. It’s hard to imagine a job more stress inducing than head football coach in either the NFL or at a major university. And in most other stressful jobs, you don’t typically have to face the public after each and every failure. Like, a surgeon doesn’t have to hold a press conference after a rough medical procedure. So I think it’s fair for a coach to have a meltdown here and there, within reason. Honestly, watching Dennis Green scream about giving the game away to the Bears is way more fun than hearing the same old answer anyway.
But more importantly, does a coach have the right to tear into a fan for being critical? That’s a bit more nuanced. My initial take is yes, especially as so much of the criticism veers quickly into the personal, a space hardly granted to big time coaches. So when someone tears into Dabo Swinny’s coaching, they’re really tearing into him. But just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Part of the price of being an insanely high paid employee of an often public university – or even a pro sports team in the public trust – is that you have ceded some of your free expression, particularly when it comes to those you serve. And make no mistake, a big-time coach is a public servant. Which is why outside of Donald Trump, politicians can’t get away with taking pot shots at the public either. That is part of the price of getting ten million a year. So Swinney may not have been wrong here, but he still wasn’t right.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I want him to stop. Because there is little more fun than hearing a coach lose his cool.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler
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