Post-game interviews with Clemson\u00a0head coach Dabo Swinney<\/a><\/strong> vary in size, shape, and color, and there’s plenty to choose from with the Tigers winning 68 of their last 81 games. From acronym-crafting to southern charm, the style of the Tiger’s head coach is unpredictable and hard not to love. But despite the vibrancy among the Tiger\u2019s football program, two things are consistent: God and faith.<\/p>\n At Clemson, football and faith blend together seemingly effortless. On Saturdays, before Swinney pats Howard’s Rock and leads his team down the hill into the deafening roar of Memorial Stadium, the crowd of 70,000 falls silent as a prayer is read over the PA system.<\/p>\n But religion does not surface just in the moments before Swinney and his take the field. The team regularly participates in group prayer, Bible studies, and other spiritual activities. The program also provides its players transportation to local churches for Sunday mass services.<\/p>\n In 2013, Clemson University received complaints of entangling religion in its football program. According to the 2013 complaints<\/a> made by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Swinney approved 87 devotionals that were organized by the team\u2019s chaplain and led by members of the Tiger\u2019s coaching staff. The FFRF claims that the state-funded school\u2019s football program is \u201centangled\u201d in Christianity, which can be coercive got an impressionable young man trying to impress coaches and earn time on the field.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, that\u2019s a lot of praying going on,\u201d said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the FFRF, a nonprofit atheist and agnostic group. \u201cAnd it\u2019s all orchestrated by the authority figures. And that is abusive.\u201d<\/p>\n In a 2015 interview with the Associated Press<\/a>, Dabo Swinney explained that the faith shared among his team is a large part of their success.<\/p>\n “As a Christian, I hope a light shines through me,” said Swinney. “I don’t want to be persecuted for that and I don’t try to persecute somebody else because they have different beliefs.”<\/p>\n Swinney dismissed the idea that he and his staff are breaking the boundary between church and state. After a review by the school in 2014, Clemson Athletic Director Dan Radakovich supported this idea, explaining that the team follows crafted guidelines and that pregame prayer is always submitted to officials prior to it being read before any game.<\/p>\n “People who are doing this, they live in today’s world and they know and understand that this is a unique, special honor for them to be able to do that and they understand what the audience is and what the law of the state is,” said Radakovich.<\/p>\n With a cross on the chain he wears around his neck, two-time Heisman candidate quarterback Deshaun Watson<\/a><\/strong> says faith played a small, but important, role in his decision to attend Clemson.<\/p>\n “But it was a part of it, of course, knowing that my coach is a man of God,” said Watson.<\/p>\n “I try to be who I am. I try to be transparent. I try to live my life in a way that I hope is pleasing to my maker,” said Swinney. “As a program, we try to challenge these guys to be the best that they can be every day.”<\/p>\nFreedom from Religion Foundation<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Football and Religion<\/strong><\/h3>\n