LBS- Clemson wide receiver Tee Higgins found himself in some hot water earlier this week when a car salesman shared a photo of him on social media posing in front of an exotic car, but head coach Dabo Swinney defended his player over the situation.
After the photo went viral, Higgins’ mother took to social media to insist her son could never afford a $200,000 car and doesn’t even have a job. Higgins said he had no knowledge that his image would be used in a promotion, and the NCAA sent the dealership a cease-and-desist and chose not to sanction the receiver. On Wednesday, Swinney defended Higgins and said someone was taking advantage of the youngster for publicity. “That’s the world we live in. It is what it is. I think everything’s an opportunity to learn,” Swinney said, via Grace Raynor of The Post and Courier. “He’s one of the best kids that you’ll ever have and be around and it just kind of comes with the territory,” Swinney said. “You learn from it, but obviously there’s a lot of what do you call it — fish bait? Or click bait? Isn’t that what they call it, click bait? Trying to get some story. “That’s just the world that we live in. So you’ve got to be smart and hope that you can just avoid those types of situations that create false perceptions. But as long as you do what’s right, you ain’t gotta worry about it.” -------- Ugh, those damn fish baiters are at it again. Just casting a bunch of lines in the direction of young, naive athletes in hopes that they can get a bite from a soon-to-be college star and reel in some excess publicity by way of an impressionable teenager that's willing to trade an obvious photo-op for a ride in a fancy sports car. Here's a rhetorical question, have they no shame?!? Now, I don't want to kill a kid for taking the bait of keys to a McLaren Spider, but I do find it at least mildly concerning that he wasn't able to recognize it as such. After all, if you hung that greaseball of a worm in the water then the stink would have repelled even the most senseless of sea creatures. All it really should have taken was one look at the walking, talking stereotype standing next to him for Tee Higgins to realize he was being taken advantage of. The slicked back hair that was somehow completely oblivious to the receding line from which it came? The loose dress clothes that fit his profession better than they fit the Marshall's manakin he bought them off of? The sly smirk and a thumbs up that might as well have a rattle attached to it as it is the universal sign of a complete snake? I've never been a local celebrity so I've never been leeched off of, but someone whose office could be put on wheels and relocated to a neighboring county within the hour has parasite written all over him. I appreciate Dabo Swinney coming to the defense of one of his players, but I actually disagree with the notion that Tee Higgins had to be smart to see how this was going to play out publicly. Hopefully he learned his lesson and goes on to fulfill his limitless potential, but it probably couldn't hurt to prioritize working on his awareness before he accidentally runs the wrong route into an NCAA infraction. They won't have to pray too hard on his downfall if he keeps dancing with the type of person whose business card would read 'The Devil' if it were at all accurate...
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