Clemson earned its locker room victory cigars in a Championship classic

TAMPA, Fla. — It doesn’t matter that Christian Wilkins doesn’t smoke.

“I need a cigar,” he half yells, half sings after Clemson’s 35-31 victory over Alabama in a Championship rematch.

“I gotta go find me one. I don’t even smoke, but I’m gonna at least put one in my mouth, act cool. I’ma at least make it look good.

“I’m celebrating tonight. National champs, such a great feeling. Great teammates. I love ’em so much. Hats off to Alabama. They didn’t make it easy for us, but it was our night tonight.”

There’s an empty wrapper on the floor for an Alec Bradley Sanctum Double Gordo. Its former contents are in the mouth of defensive end Clelin Ferrell. He got it for $15.

“We felt like we had to get some, because we felt like we was gonna do well in these next two games,” he says. “We took one to the game in Arizona [the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State], smoked those after we won that. So then we had to bring out the big dogs for this one, you know?”

Locker rooms typically smell like body odor, but Clemson’s was different. It wreaked not of sweat, but of smoke.

The cigars aren’t that dissimilar from the ones you could get a few miles away in Tampa’s historic Ybor City, the place that bills itself as the Cigar Capital of the World.

One Tigers player bounds into the locker room yelling, “It’s about to be lit,” and he was right, in a way. Someone had to stash a lighter into the room for the postgame festivities, and the handful of players who puffed filled the air with the aroma of victory.

There is a sweet irony as well. Traditionally, Alabama’s players smoke cigars after they beat bitter rival Tennessee every year.

The locker room even felt like a humidor. It’s a tight room, with sticky heat radiating from the shower.

It is a stark contrast from the 50-degree temperature outside, which counts for frigid in Florida.

Just ask the fans who bundled up in blankets in Raymond James Stadium on a surprisingly winter-like weekend. But as the game came down to the wire, nobody had the brain matter to worry about temperatures.

Those Clemson fans arrived early and might not have outdrawn the Crimson Tide contingent, but certainly out-yelled them for most of the weekend.

With nearly one voice, they cried out for a late offside penalty that didn’t come. They exulted when Clemson scored with just over four minutes to go. Malaise washed over them when Jalen Hurts cracked back on the ensuing drive.

As the tension ratcheted up, one player wouldn’t even look at the field, his eyes fixed on the giant Jumbotron. His teammates inched toward glory. The band played “Eye of the Tiger.”

The explosion when Deshaun Watson connected with Hunter Renfrow was louder than any cannon blast that could’ve come from the 103-foot pirate ship looming over that end zone. Then the band played “Tiger Rag.”

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The winning play was called Crush, and that’s exactly what the Tigers did to the title dreams of the previously unblemished Crimson Tide.

“Just kind of slowed down the moment,” Watson said of the final play. “Just kind of smiled to myself and just knew because I knew that we were inside the 5, and I knew they were going to play straight cover zero man, and I knew if Tay [Artavis Scott] make his block and get the little pick, Renfrow was going to get in the end zone. I kind of smiled, and I knew before I even snapped the ball it was going to be a touchdown. All I had to do was just get the ball to him. I slowed down the moment, everyone made their blocks and did their part, and I did my part, and we pulled it out.”

Watson has given Clemson everything. His time, his effort, and even an anterior cruciate ligament. What he gave in the championship game with 420 yards through the air will etch his name in Tigers history forever, as Alabama’s perfect season vanished like a plume of smoke.