Dabo Swinney made Jim Brown captain against Syracuse, players didn’t get it

Dabo Swinney is naming his long snapper Jim Brown team captain for Clemson’s game against Syracuse, but none of his players got the joke.

The Clemson coach said he’s been waiting “all year” to make his long snapper Brown the team captain in the game against Syracuse, an obvious reference to the other Jim Brown, Syracuse alumni and one of the greatest football players of all time.

There was just one problem. When Swinney told the team, none of them knew who the original Jim Brown was.

“I’ve been waiting all year to name Jim Brown as the captain for the Syracuse game,” Swinney said to laughter from the assembled reporters. “See, now, that’s the way the response is supposed to be. We’ve got some wise, mature people in this room. When I said that to the team yesterday, there were all just looking at me like… [blank expression.] I got nothing. Crickets.”

“That is just sad beyond explanation that arguably the greatest running back of all time, they don’t even know who he is. The only Jim Brown they know is the snapper at Clemson. That’s unbelievable to me.”

Swinney admitted that once he explained the story to his players, some of them were reminded that they’d seen clips of him before. It still seems hard to believe that a team of football players had no name recognition of one of the game’s all-time greats, no matter how young they are. Also, having some fun with team captains seems to be a trend in football these days.

H/T SB Nation