Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney apologizes for ‘suicide watch’ comment
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney issued an apology Sunday for a suicide-related remark he made after his team’s loss to Miami.
Swinney said during his regularly scheduled conference call with reporters that his comment about a team psychologist being “on suicide watch” was a poor choice of words and a poor attempt at humor after a frustrating loss.
Swinney said Clemson is very intentional about prioritizing mental health and his remarks postgame went against that standard the Tigers have set.
“That was such a poor attempt at humor on my part and just a really bad choice of words in a bad moment,” he said. “Certainly not something I should say, and I absolutely apologize for that.”
“I mean, we’re very deliberate in what we do around here in prioritizing mental health for our students and staff. And that was, like I said, just a really bad choice of words and an even worse attempt at more humor. I apologize for that for sure.”
After the Tigers’ 28-20 double overtime loss to Miami on Saturday night, Swinney was asked if he’d considered using a sports psychologist to help Clemson solve its turnover woes. The Tigers fumbled four times, lost two of them and also had an interception.
“We got ’em,” Swinney said. “We got ’em. He’s probably on suicide watch right now. Yeah, we got ’em. Again, sometimes things don’t go — I mean, I’m sure things have not gone the way y’all always want in your professional career from time to time. You’ve had a plan, you’ve worked hard, you did everything and it didn’t go the way you want. Well, you know what? You just gotta keep moving, you gotta keep going.”
Swinney’s attempt at a joke related to someone being on suicide watch due to the football team’s poor performance drew immediate criticism from users on the platform X (formerly Twitter), who said the comment was insensitive in light of college sports’ mental health crisis.
At least five NCAA athletes died by suicide in 2022, and college athletes nationally are “experiencing more mental health concerns, anxiety, and depression than they reported in surveys conducted before the covid-19 pandemic took hold in 2020,” according to CBS Sports report in March.
As of Sunday, a video on X of Swinney’s postgame comments had been viewed nearly 100,000 times and two posts recapping his remarks were nearing 1 million views, with the majority of interactions on both post critiquing Swinney’s choice of words.
After blowing a 10-point fourth quarter lead against Miami, Clemson fell to 4-3 and 2-3 in the ACC. It’s the first time since the 2010 season, Swinney’s second as coach, that the Tigers have lost three conference games.
Next Clemson game
Who: Clemson (4-3, 2-3 ACC) at N.C. State (4-3, 1-2 ACC)
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh
TV: The CW
This story was originally published October 22, 2023 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney apologizes for ‘suicide watch’ comment."
