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CLEMSON | A full -- and fully necessary -- disclosure:
When Trevor Lawrence arrived at Clemson, and through his first utterly brilliant season at Clemson, this observer was skeptical that we'd ever really get to know the kid.
The "we" means not just the media but all the people who consume the media. As in, all y'all.
Controlling the message is a major initiative these days within college football programs that generate the money they do (or at least did before the pandemic).
Many of the best players now arrive at college having spent their lives groomed to be supreme not just at football, but at not saying anything of substance.
That was our hunch about Lawrence after his first year in the program.
And not that there's anything wrong with a player being guarded and never saying much when the cameras are on. It's just that as chroniclers of an elite football program, there's a natural desire to go beyond the surface with the elite players in that program.
Lawrence was quiet and shy initially, hard to read. He looked as if he couldn't wait to get the press conferences over with.
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But as it turned out, this was more just the typical freshman soft-spokenness than the typical megastar construction of a wall between himself and the outside world.
As it turned out, he was much more reflective and comfortable and human during his second season. A gentle spirit who showed grace, patience and humor while going through the weekly crush of media functions that the highest-profile players have to deal with.
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One of the great joys of being around college football players is seeing them grow and evolve as men. To do what many of us did in college, but what took a lot longer for others of us to do.
To get along with people, even those with whom we have differences. To be self aware. To not be too impressed with yourself. To show up and speak even when you don't feel like it. To step up and speak up when you feel led to.
In late May, amidst racial unrest after the George Floyd killing, Lawrence offered this:
"There has to be a shift in the way of thinking. Rational must outweigh irrational. Justice must outweigh injustice. Love must outweigh hate. If you put yourself in someone else's shoes and you don't like how it feels -- that's when you know things need to change. I'm siding with my brothers that deal, and continuously deal, with things I will never experience. The injustice is clear.. and so is the hate. It can no longer be explained away. if you're still 'explaining' it -- check your heart and ask why."
And now, with the scheduled 2020 football season seemingly hanging by a thread, Lawrence is at the forefront of the movement to save it.
But it's not just #WeWantToPlay and damn anyone who has concerns about the risks and unknowns. It's also a sharing of some of the concerns and requests that had already been voiced by the #WeAreUnited movement.
Just when those two hashtags were being pitted against each other in the media and general social-media public -- because, well, just about everything is pitted against each other these days -- Lawrence and Darien Rencher led the way in bringing the two causes together.
These guys want to play.
They also want issues addressed to ensure a safe and fair environment moving forward.
So to the masses out there who were previously co-opting one hashtag over the other in this endless game of adults ripping each other apart, put that in your agenda pipe and smoke it.
Pretty wild that, in the galling absence of leadership or unity among the power conferences in recent months, it takes a group of college kids to set the example for how to act and get things done.
It's not yet known whether this virtual last-minute push will bring action in the form of a fall season. Our feeling as of this Monday morning is that it's still a longshot, that momentum is already too far down the tracks for cancelling the season or at least postponing it to the spring.
But regardless of what unfolds, the spirit of Lawrence's words and actions will endure.
When the superstar arrived at Clemson, the program and the university were viewed as a mere pit stop on the way to NFL fame and fortune.
But in 30 games -- and Lord, please let his college career encompass more than 30 freaking games -- he has given us and himself so much more than brilliance on a football field.
As it turns out the golden boy with the golden locks has a golden voice.
We stand corrected.
And we stand in awe.
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