ACC Commish Swofford's Statement of Racial Unity: Reaction
This Tuesday, many across the sports and media landscape participated in Blackout Tuesday. Including us here at All Seminoles, FSU sports teams, the student athletes, and their coaches. It was an outpouring of support for the black community and a coming together from all walks of life for human rights.
On Wednesday, many organizations released statements backing the movement as it continues to grow, and the ACC, along with its commissioner, John Swofford, was no exception. The conference released this post on its official Twitter page today.
While Swofford may not have been the first to speak on the matter, his words certainly hold weight with a lot of young black men and women who are student athletes in the ACC. Seeing public support from the man in charge is needed in times like these. When so many people feel like they don’t have a voice, it’s only right for someone with such influence to come out and send a strong message.
Now this doesn’t mean this statement was without some valid criticism. Some feel the conference and its leader should’ve taken a stronger stance-- and taken it a lot earlier. There were talking heads on the ACC Network who compared the message to that of Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney by stating it was a lot of words that said nothing. Some even feeling using a graphic like this was a bit of an overstep.
After many of the head coaches, assistant coaches, and players from the conference made their stands on social media, it was only a matter of time before it'd be addressed by the ACC.
