CLEMSON — One mistake. One moment. One comment. They can tarnish a career in a flash, a career that spans years or even decades. It does not matter. It just takes one moment to kill a career.

Remember Woody Hayes?

In one moment, Ohio State’s legendary head coach killed his career. Seconds after Clemson’s Charlie Bauman intercepted Art Schlichter’s pass to seal the Tigers’ 1978 Gator Bowl win and returned it out of bounds on the Ohio State sideline, Hayes lifted him up and punched him in the neck.

It was right on national television for everyone to see.

The next day, Hayes was asked to step down as Ohio State’s coach, despite the fact he won 238 games and multiple national championships as the Buckeyes’ head coach for 28 years.

In one moment, he was done.

Hayes is not the only one who has fallen from grace due to one bad moment. It’s more common than one might think. The sad thing is, it tarnishes their legacy.

What Dabo Swinney did Tuesday—being condescending to the State’s Chapel Fowler on a fair question the whole world wants an answer to—is not going to get him fired. However, it was a bad moment for Swinney, especially after what happened this weekend in Baton Rouge.

It just looks bad. All of it does.

His team loses by 41 points, the worst loss of his career, by the way, and then a few days later he is condescending to a reporter that is just doing his job. That’s not a good look.

It’s a moment, based on what I am seeing online, Swinney perhaps wishes he had back.

It’s also another example of how Swinney is slowly damaging his legacy at Clemson.

There is no doubt Dabo Swinney will be in the College Football Hall of Fame one day. There are not many coaches with multiple national championships. His record and what he has accomplished at Clemson is impeccable.

He is one of the greatest college coaches of all time. However, you have to wonder if his time at Clemson is coming to an end. And would that be a bad thing for him and Clemson?

As I mentioned, the more Swinney loses games like his team did the other night at LSU, it’s another shot to his legacy.

You are seeing what the Steven A Smiths and Paul Finebaums of the world are saying. In the last three seasons, Clemson has lost to Georgia and twice to LSU in season openers and has been outscored 102-23 in those three games.

That’s embarrassing.

They also lost at Duke in 2023, 28-7, to open the season. That is embarrassing.

Since 2021, Clemson is 1-5 in season openers (also lost to Georgia 10-3 in 2021). You know what they were prior to 2021 in season openers under Swinney? 11-1.

That is right, 11-1. And it was not 11 wins against cupcakes.

In those 11 wins, Clemson beat Auburn (twice), Georgia, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest.

And what is worse about Saturday’s loss is that it comes after a 7-6 season, a season in which the Tigers had an embarrassing loss at home to Syracuse and had one home win against a Power 4 opponent.

All the good. All the championships. All the streaks. All the winning. It is slowly going away.

So, Swinney did not need the bad press today. He has enough of it right now.

Also, the question was fair, and there are a lot of people who want to know the answer because right now, perception around the country—not just at Clemson—is Swinney has lost his touch, and the game has passed him by.

What happened during his press conference on Tuesday is an example of just how insecure he is starting to become. And that is never good.