Did Dabo Swinney Get Punched In The Face? Black Eye At Clemson Game Causes Panic

Dabo Swinney showed up to today's UNC-Clemson basketball game with a gnarly black eye and looking like he spent his Friday night arguing politics at a downtown dive bar, and the internet was alarmed.

The longtime football coach was caught by an ESPN camera with a clear-as-day shiner under his left eye, and the folks in Bristol immediately set off a firestorm on Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter.

What happened to Dabo Swinney?! He trended almost immediately, with internet sleuths on the case like white on rice. Was it Tyler from Spartanburg? Did he fall down the stairs? Run into a door? Lasik?

You tell us!

Did Tyler from Spartanburg give Dabo Swinney a black eye?

Elite shiner here for Dabo Swinney. No doubt about it. Whatever happened, it's gotta be one hell of a story.

The most popular opinion on the internet is obviously the Tyler from Spartanburg one, which stems from Dabo's little radio spat with TFS late last year.

"So, I’m curious. Why are we paying you $11.5 million to go 4-4?" the caller asked Swinney after questioning his coaching hires and saying he sensed "arrogance." 

"You're part of the problem, to be honest with you," Swinney responded.

"The appreciation, the expectation is greater than the appreciation," he continued. "And that's the problem. We've won 12 10-plus-win seasons in a row. That's happened three times in 150 years. So if you want to know why, Clemson ain't sniff a national championship for 35 years.

"We've won two in seven years. And there's only two other teams that can say that – Georgia and Alabama. OK?

"Is this a bad year? Ya, and it’s my responsibility. Take 100% responsibility for it. But all this bullcrap you’re thinking and all these narratives you read … Listen, man, you can have your opinion all you want. And you can apply for the job. And good luck to you." 

With the season finally over for Clemson and the gloves off, did Dabo Swinney and Tyler just decide to hash it out once and for all like a couple of good ol' boys? I've seen it happen a million times, by the way. It's a story as old as time.

Boys will be boys, especially when you're out on the town after a 9-4 season. Billy Napier can get away with that stuff in Gainesville because Gators fans would kill for a 9-win season. But that doesn't fly in Clemson, and Dabo Swinney knows it.

Perhaps he finally just had enough and decided to start 2024 with a bang. Who knows?

In the meantime, here's the internet at it's finest: