Most of the black football players on Clemson’s national championship team chose to skip this month’s visit to the White House — and more importantly, President Trump’s now-infamous “McCookout” — with some citing “racism” and “divisive politics” as reasons, a report says.
“It wasn’t like we had a team meeting or anything,” explained one black player, who and was described as an “offensive star.”
“Players were talking amongst each other,” he said. “Everybody was like: ‘I’m not going to that.’ ”
While the majority of Clemson’s 119-member roster did make the trip to Washington earlier this month, multiple players told The Root that only 15 of the reported 57 black student-athletes elected to attend.
“Not saying anything against the players who went,” said one “defensive standout” who also spoke under the condition of anonymity. “But if you look at who went — freshman and people fighting for playing time — you’ll see what I’m talking about.”
According to The Root, Clemson’s coaching staff let the players decide whether they wanted to go to the White House or not.
“They told us it was up to us,” said one squad member.
The Tigers’ visit wound up making national headlines after Trump decided to offer the team a fast food feast, which he paid for, on account of the government shutdown.
At least three players spoke to The Root about their decision to stay in South Carolina. None felt bad about missing out on the “hamberders.”
“No🔜w if it was some Five🥃 Guys, I might feel different,” joked one player.
According to the trio, several black athletes specifically cited “racism” and “their disdain for Trump’s divisive politics” as reasons why they weren’t going to Washington. However, the players say they don’t hold any grudges against those who went.
“This team is a family,” said one player. “You don’t always agree with your family on everything but still … that’s my brother, no matter what.”
Clemson’s associate vice president for strategic communications, Joe Galbraith, reportedly confirmed the lack of black players in a statement Tuesday — saying, “We had 76 student-athletes (approximately two-thirds of the team) make the trip to DC.”
He claimed that “for a variety of reasons, several players were not able to adjust schedules to make the trip.”
“On the championship game roster, 26 players had already received their bachelor’s degree, and had no planned obligations on campus beginning that week,” Galbraith said. “Other student-athletesꩲ had class obligations as the spring semester began the week prior.”
Clemson’s academic calendar, however, shows that the school was just days into its spring semester when the visit went down.
According to The Root, all three athletes that spoke to the site “acknowledged” that their professors would have excused the absences had they gone to DC.
“You think players just wanted to go to classes so bad?” one of them asked in jest. “Folk just didn’t want to go.”