His John Hancock is the least of Lynn Swann’s worries nowadays but the USC athletic director is still in the position where he has to put out another self-inflicted fire for the cardinal and gold.
The Hall of Fame wideout-turned-administrator issued a public letter on Tuesday evening after the bad optics of Swann traveling to the East Coast for an autograph show surfaced in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend.
“The article would have you believe that I traveled to sign autographs with no concern for what is going on at USC. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Swann wrote. “While on this brief weekend trip back East, I was constantly connected with people at our university. Also, as a matter of principle, I live up to my commitments and contractual obligations. I signed a contract months ago to appear at the event, well before news broke of what is going on at USC now. Not showing up would have been a breach of contract.”
Needless to say the timing could have been a lot better -- and one reason why Trojans fans are not super happy with Swann in the wake of three members of his athletic department being arrested by the FBI the past two years. In addition, the school is still trying to sort out a naming rights controversy with the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and United Airlines while also responding to a recently filed lawsuit by a former USC kicker.
Add in the usual on-field concerns as the Trojans wrap up spring practice under Clay Helton and you can understand why there’s a lot going on and not the appearance of much being done to correct it. While issuing a public letter to let supporters know the details is nice, something says that actions will need to start speaking louder than words for Swann as the program tries to sort out a host of issues from the past few months.
