Swinney Issues Statement on "Historic Times", Danny Pearman and T-Shirt

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney issued a statement Monday afternoon on two topics: Supporting positive change and the path moving forward.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney issued a statement Monday afternoon on two topics: Supporting positive change and the path moving forward.

In addition to those two topics, Swinney also addressed an issue surrounding assistant head coach and tight ends coach Danny Pearman. 

A day after Swinney's statement regarding the state of the nation was met with mixed reviews, former player Kanyon Tuttle took to Twitter to call out Swinney for allowing an assistant head coach and tight ends coach Danny Pearman to use n-word in a practice three years ago.

"Cap (slang for liar), you allowed a coach to call a player the N-word during practice with no repercussions. Not even a team apology. When we had the sit-in in front of sikes you suggested us players try to stay out of it to limit distractions. Stop protecting your brand, take a stand," Tuttle wrote.

Pearman released the following statement Tuesday night:

“Three years ago on the practice field, I made a grave mistake involving D.J. Greenlee. I repeated a racial slur I overheard when trying to stop the word from being used on the practice field. What I overheard, I had no right to repeat.

While I did not direct the term at any player, I know there is no excuse for me using the language in any circumstance. I never should have repeated the phrase. It was wrong when I said it, and it is wrong today.

I apologized to D.J. at the conclusion of practice, who then appropriately raised his concern to Coach Swinney. Coach and I met to discuss the incident, and he reiterated that my language was unacceptable. I later apologized again as well as expressed my sincere regret to our position group the following day.

I love the young men who choose to come to our university, and I would never do anything to intentionally hurt them. I sincerely apologize to D.J., his family, our team and our staff.”

Monday, Swinney addressed the accusations and calls for Pearman to be fired.

"First of all, anybody who has been in our program knows there are two words in particular I don't want to hear," Swinney said. "One is the n-word and the other is GD. I would fire a coach immediately if he called a player the n-word. That absolutely did not happen."

"A story broke this week. And the story was not in context. But what happened was we had I didn't know anything about it. It was a coach and his player, Coach Pearman and DJ off doing a drill and a part of the field wasn't in front of the whole team or anything like that. And Coach Pearman was correcting DJ to do the right thing...And DJ, you know, just kind of, you know, said something he probably shouldn't have said and he said, you know, 'I blocked the wrong effing n-word.'

"And Coach Pearman, you know, thought he was saying to him and he's mad and he reacted. And he basically, in correcting him repeated to say the phrase and he said, We don't say we blocked the wrong effing n-word. And he repeated, and he shouldn't have done it. There's no excuse for even saying that. It doesn't matter what the context is, but there is a big difference.

"He did not call someone an n-word. And so again, I didn't know anything about it. Things happen. There's a lot of things that don't allow in our program. But when things happen, we deal with it. Sometimes it's in private, sometimes it's public. This particular case, the player came to me in private, and we had handled in private. And I think it's important to know, because every case is different. But this particular player, DJ, I've known him his entire life. Coach Pearman's known him his entire life.

"But he brought this to me in private. He told me what happened. Met Coach Pearman, he was profusely apologetic. And he told me exactly the same thing, also consulted with Coach McCorvey on it. And we moved on.

"Coach Pearman apologized, and we moved on. And I think it's also important to know, this player's dad, he and I have worked together for going on 18 years. He's been my street coach for 12 years, and the Greenlee family, they're family. And so, you know, there wasn't anything swept under the rug. There wasn't some dirty secret. We handled it."

Swinney also addressed a photo that was taken of him in a "Football Matters" shirt and added that he not only agrees with the Black Lives Matter movement, but feels there needs to be more done.

"It's a shirt I've had for a couple years, it's given to pretty much every coach by the National Football foundation," Swinney said. "And, you know, that's been their promotional thing, I think, since all the way back in 2014. And I would just say any incident, you know, that I was trying to mock the Black Lives movement, it is just an attack on my character, just an attack on my character, and really sad. But I also will say, I wholeheartedly support Black Lives Matter. In fact, I don't quite think that's adequate enough, I think, I think Black Lives significantly and equally matter to me just like laws matters, kind of like, Hey, we might have to, I think Black Lives significantly and equally matter.

"All right, God loves us all. None of us are better than anybody else. It doesn't matter what the color of our skin is where we're born, any of that stuff. All right, in the eyes of God, we are all equal. We're all first team. We're all five stars. We all got an eternal contract. And that is what I believe."

A message from Coach Swinney

— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) June 8, 2020

ON SUPPORTING POSITIVE CHANGE:

“This is a historic time in our world and in our country, and as a coach and as a team, we will do our part to create positive change against racism of any kind, social injustice and police brutality.

I always have believed that actions are a lot louder than words, and I love our team for the actions that they have already taken with a great town hall meeting and lots of communication in our position meetings. We had a wonderful senior meeting last week with just great discussion and it was just awesome to see and hear our young men speak, and just wonderful brotherly love. We’ve got a team meeting coming up and many other things, so I’m proud of the actions that our guys have already taken.

We’re just a football program and I’m just a football coach, but Clemson has been a leader on and off the field for the past decade, and we will continue to be a leader and a light for many. We are a unified football team and we will work to unify others by how we serve, by how we play the game and by how we do our jobs as a staff.

We have always had great leadership within our program and, man, this team is no different. It has been incredible to see this brilliant group of young people lead right now, and [I’m] so proud of them. This group of leaders on this team, they are ready to lead the way to being a part of the solution for this country.

I stand with my players and I will help them any way I can to unify people and help create positive change.”

ON THE PATH FORWARD:

“We will continue to communicate and continue to get better. We have much more work to do, but we have taken a lot of action over the past decade to help create change for our players and our community, and we will continue to do that.

This is a historic time – a historic time — and the time for change is now in so many areas that have affected our black players and their families for many, many years. And again, we’re just a football program, but we will do our part to create great change in this world. God bless you.”