Coaches and the Politics of our Day

USA Today:

A game that is often played against Christianity but rarely recognizes that anti-faith is a kind of faith too.

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney has responded to the letter of complaint the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent to the university on April 10 citing “constitutional concerns about how the public university’s football program is entangled with religion.”

According to the foundation, Swinney has promoted a culture in the program that promotes Christianity and violates constitutional guidelines of the separation of church and state as stipulated in the Establishment Clause of the first amendment.

Today, Swinney responded in a statement released by the university. He asserted that religious activity is not a requirement of his program.

“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.”