Giger: Lions need Clifford focused on playing better, not union role

ALTOONA, Pa. -- Life is not always fair. And that is absolutely true in sports, where fans judge things based on passion and emotion, not what's right or just.

It's just win, baby. Just produce. Get the job done.

If you're a good person, too, that's fine. Awesome. But you'd better damn well win and produce, or it won't matter how good of a person you are.

Sean Clifford is a good person. And after covering the sixth-year quarterback for his entire career at Penn State, I can unequivocally say he is a good leader. I respect Clifford greatly for his leadership skills and work ethic.

A little something about me: I believe leadership is one of the most important qualities in the world. Because if you are a good leader, the traits that come with that also will develop and make you a more respected and valued person. When I drop my kids off at school, every single the day the last thing I say to them is, "Be a good leader."

But I'm gonna cut to the chase here with regards to Sean Clifford: Penn State has gone 11-11 the past two years with him as the quarterback, and he has been remarkably average throughout most of his career.

Clifford is, without question, one of the most heavily criticized Penn State players I've covered, someone the fan base has no problem calling out. He's not a bad quarterback by any stretch, and sometimes he can look really good. But statistically and using the eye test, he's been little more than average, and it's occurred during back-to-back incredibly disappointing seasons for the Nittany Lions.

All of that makes Clifford an easy target to blame for Penn State's recent struggles. And the fact that he's still around as a fourth-year starting QB makes a huge portion of the fan base scratch their heads wondering "WHY?"

When word broke last week that Clifford apparently was a ring leader in perhaps trying to help the Penn State football team unionize, it really didn't come as a big surprise to me. Again, I have great respect for his leadership skills, and I do believe college football players need to be and will be part of a union at some point in the not-too-distant future.

A 24-year-old man who's been around college football for six years and who is a strong leader would be a natural choice for anyone trying to form a union to gravitate toward.

But this is where the part about life not being fair comes into play.

And the part about Clifford making a big mistake.

To try and hold a meeting with 100 football players to discuss possibly unionizing two weeks before the start of preseason camp would give ANYONE fodder for saying that a player in that position is opening himself up to a major distraction, during a time when you would like to think the full focus would be on getting ready for the season.

Now, the reality in sports is that if Penn State had gone 11-2 last year and Clifford had a great season, then it probably would be easy to downplay his involvement in any of the union discussions.

But Penn State finished 7-6, after starting 5-0 and reaching as high as No. 4 in the nation. Clifford had another average season and suffered a key injury in a huge game at No. 2 Iowa that wound up costing the Lions dearly.

Rightly or wrongly, fair or not, the Penn State fan base doesn't want to see or hear anything about this particular quarterback being involved in something off the field that could take his attention away from football in any way.

To be perfectly clear, I am NOT in the camp of people who say athletes should just "shut up and dribble," meaning to stay in their sports lane rather than taking part in important social issues. I strongly believe that the athletes who are the best leaders do serve as role models and should have a voice when it comes to some things.

And once again, I'll reiterate that Clifford is a great leader, and it may take someone like him to be part of any successful unionization process in college sports.

But that doesn't mean Penn State fans want him anywhere near the topic, and certainly not to be the face of the issue in college football.

And I cannot imagine James Franklin would want Clifford anywhere near the union stuff, either. Franklin has taken a huge amount of criticism for the struggles the past two seasons, and he doesn't want his veteran quarterback being distracted in any way during a year where the program hopes to have a chance to regroup and bounce back in a big way.

For his part, Clifford handled the issue well when asked at Big Ten media days about his involvement in the process to helping college players get enhanced benefits. Here's what he said on BTN:

"I think that, first and foremost, it's all about football right now. We're leading right up into camp Sunday for us. And that's the main focus. It's the only focus."

That's what you call a player who understands what the outside world was probably thinking about the potential distraction element.

And then Clifford added this:

"But to say that I want to make a difference for college athletes moving forward, of course, and it's not about me that's really the main focus here. It's not about myself. It's not about us. It's about everybody. And to be in a conference with a commissioner that's so open to change and talking with a coach and an AD that's so willing to have those conversations, it's just a blessing to be in that situation.

"But again, it's just one of those things right now. We're we're a week away from camp, and that's what is the main thing, so keep it the main thing."

Here's one thing you can guarantee: If Clifford and the Lions get off to a strong start this season, then none of this union stuff will have amounted to anything. But if the QB struggles and the team starts losing, he had better be ready for a bunch of questions about whether the union stuff was a distraction that affected his focus and performance.

Fair or not, that's how sports fans view the world, especially with a quarterback who already was drawing heavy criticism from the fan base.

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For further reading, here is a good recap of what all went went down at Penn State, from Jason Stahl, the founder and executive director of the College Football Players Association. Following are a couple of key paragraphs:

In Sean I thought I had found the first type of star player. Sean spoke poignantly about his friend and teammate Journey Brown who was forced to take a medical retirement thus ending his NFL aspirations. He spoke of increased demands and coach oversight during summer practices which all of the players despised. He seemed fired up and ready to go and so I left for an eight-day trip to Penn State to talk with Sean and the team in person.

It was a great experience of the type I’d been waiting for. Shortly after arriving, Sean and I, along with Leadership Committee member Justin Falcinelli, developed a platform of demands and a two-prong strategy—which included possible unionization—to try to bring the leadership of the Big Ten to the bargaining table. Then I had a chance to organize the Penn State team in person—to have authentic conversations with them face-to-face without oversight of the coaching staff. I first spoke with the leaders on the team in small groups and individually and then to the entire team. All were excited to lead the first public campaign for the CFBPA.

However, in my final five minutes with the whole team, our element of surprise was lost when a coach discovered us. Twenty-four hours later, every administrator in the Big Ten and every coach in the Big Ten knew that I had been organizing a Penn State chapter of the CFBPA. Our campaign plan, outlined in this article, had now lost the element of surprise.

Most importantly, the campaign to turn our star player leader against the players association kicked into overdrive. Commissioner of the Big Ten Kevin Warren personally lobbied Sean telling him that they were creating a Big Ten reform committee that they wanted him to sit on. Such committees have a long track record of being ineffective but Sean was swayed in this direction in the week after I left Penn State. I had inklings this was happening but hoped Sean was still working to bring Kevin Warren to the table to negotiate with player leaders from the CFBPA. I did not know for sure which was the case until Sean posted a statement to his Twitter confirming that he was distancing himself from the CFBPA and joining the Big Ten committee.