Column: Clemson Made Right Call to Play Game

Sometimes we find ourselves in a no-win situation. No matter what we do, people are going to criticize.

Such was the case for No. 15 Clemson this weekend with its game against Stanford scheduled roughly 36 hours after Hurricane Helene rolled through the Upstate leaving millions without power and widespread property damage.

With ESPN crews already in town ahead of the storm and Stanford making it in about 24 hours ahead of kickoff, the decision was made to play. And it was the right call.

Clemson is taking a lot of heat online for moving ahead with the game, but the roughly 80,000 fans that managed to make it to Memorial Stadium showed the right thing was done. I’m sure many of the local business owners agree.

Wofford played a home game on Saturday, as did SC State, Gardner-Webb and The Citadel. The Braves also played in Atlanta Saturday night. Yet somehow, it’s only Clemson that is being criticized. For “pulling resources” that were needed elsewhere.

Canceling the game isn’t nearly as easy as some keyboard warriors online are making it out to be, and postponing to a date later in the season just wasn’t an option. The two teams do not share an open date and playing on Sunday wouldn’t have been any different than playing on Saturday.

Ask any of the 80,000 people in attendance, there were actually LESS troopers working the game than normal. The ones that were there were not going to be out restoring power or serving on any type of rescue missions.

To my knowledge, pretty much all of the major roadways had been cleared of any debris that was blocking traffic by late Saturday morning. While there were a lot of traffic lights not working (and unmanned in and around Clemson due to less troopers), the fans that wanted to attend still made it in. It might have taken them a little longer but they made it.

Yes, gas and ice have been in high demand. Places were running out of ice on Friday afternoon, more than 24 hours ahead of kickoff. That would have been the case with or without football being played.

As for gas, there were long lines, but there were a few stations up and running on Sunday morning on my way out of town.

Make no mistake, there are a lot of people going through difficult times due to the impact of the storm. Some in the Upstate might be without power for a week or more.

On my drive back to Greenville Sunday morning, I saw close to half a dozen power poles that had been snapped in half. Lines still down in more places than I could count. There is still a lot of work to be done.

However, for a few hours on Saturday, tens of thousands of college football fans had the fortune of putting those problems out of their minds for a little while.

For a little while, those at Death Valley got to watch their Tigers not only play, but come away with a resounding 40-14 win over the Cardinal. The right decision was made. And kudos to Clemson, the game went off without a hitch.

“I’m just really happy we could put a smile on a lot of people’s faces,” linebacker Sammy Brown said after the game. “I know a lot of people are going through a lot of hard stuff. It’s good to put a smile on peoples faces and get a win.”

A limited number of signed replica road signs from Cade Klubnik are available!  Visit Clemson Variety & Frame or purchase online!