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- College athletes can now be paid for their name, image, and likeness, which makes past comments from Dabo Swinney rather interesting.
- Former Alabama star Marlon Humphrey has a simple question for the Clemson head coach.
- Check out more sports coverage at BroBible here.
July 1, 2021 is a monumental day in sports. Yes, it marks yet another year of Bobby Bonilla getting his $1.19 million direct deposit from the Mets, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. July 1 marks the first day athletes can (legally) be compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness.
The decision to pay college athletes and put the NCAA in a body bag has been in the works for quite some time now and plenty of coaches have spoken for and against the move over the years. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has been one of the more vocal coaches regarding the NIL decision and former Alabama cornerback Marlon Humphrey hasn’t forgotten about Swinney’s past comments.
Two years ago, Swinney told ESPN that if college players start getting paid, then maybe he’ll just quit coaching in college and make the jump to the pros.
“They may want to professionalize college athletics,” Swinney said. “Well, then, maybe I’ll go to the pros. If I’m going to coach pro football, I might as well do that.”
This led Humphrey to ask a pretty simple question on Twitter.
Didn’t Dabo say he was going to quit if athletes could get paid?🤔
— marlonhumphrey.eth (@marlon_humphrey) July 1, 2021
There are zero signs of Swinney actually stepping down at Clemson and trying his hand in the NFL, but it’s funny seeing his comments not age all that well. Swinney likely didn’t think college athletes would ever be paid on their name, image, or likeness – which is a ridiculous way to think – but things obviously moved quickly between now and his previous quotes.
Swinney’s comments about players being paid came shortly before he inked a 10-year, $93 million contract with Clemson.