Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says there are any number of possible ways for three of his football players to have consumed banned substances that led to their suspension just before the College Football Playoff last December. Although Swinney still believes his players may be vindicated, he is not ruling out the possibility those banned substances may have come from within the Clemson program by mistake.
“Oh yeah, I mean, there’s a chance that it could come from anything,” Swinney said in a story published by The Post and Courier. “They’re going to test everything and look at everything. And that’s the problem. As you really look at this stuff, it could be a contaminant that came from anything, that was something that was cleared and not a problem, and all of a sudden, it becomes there was something.”
It is true that the regulations and banned substances can sometimes be a tad complicated, and there are times when one ingredient slips through the cracks when a player consumes a substance. It is, therefore, possible a substance provided through the university may have been one that was overlooked in the process, although that would lead to some more questions about those responsible for handing out the drugs to players on the university payroll if that is the case.
This latest comment from Swinney doesn’t stray too far from his previous comment on the situation. Last December, when it was announced defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, offensive lineman Zach Giella and tight end Braden Galloway had failed a drug test, Swinney came to the defense of his players and suggested they had no idea how they could have failed their respective drug tests.
“They have no clue how it got in their system. This could have come from hair products, cream, protein, a product you buy online and you think nothing is wrong with it. It could be something in a drink,” Swinney said at the time. “40 or so athletes over the last year or so have had to deal with same thing, and several were vindicated.”
The players failed a drug test for ostarine and additional samples were not clean enough to reinstate the players for the semifinal game against Notre Dame or the national championship game against Alabama. While Lawrence is off to the NFL, Giella and Galloway remain on the team while the appeals process continues.