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VIDEO: Frank Martin hides in shirt to duck politics question, then delivers eloquent answer

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South Carolina head coach Frank Martin was asked at a Monday media session how he would feel if, after his team won a national title, one or more of his players decided against visiting the White House with the team.

Martin is the son of Cuban exiles and grew up in Miami. When the question was prefaced with, “Since it’s President’s Day I think I can ask this,” Martin hid in his shirt, and while his reaction was funny, his answer was actually pretty enlightening and typical Frank Martin.

(If you cannot watch the video, the text is below):

“I haven’t thought about it,” Martin said when his head finally emerged from within his shirt and after a good 15 seconds of contemplation. “Probably not. Probably not I haven’t agreed with every President that’s been in the White House in my lifetime. But I love this country and what our government stands for as a whole. I’ not going to judge our country based on who I like and don’t like. I think we do an injustice to young people when we make them think this country is run by one person.”

“I think it’s an injustice. Any time we take a stand against one person -- we can do whatever we want to here, I’m not trying to tell people how to do things, you’re asking my my opinion and I’m sharing it with you -- I think we do an injustice. The beautiful thing in this country is that we all have different voices and we can all express our voices and our views. I think I would be disappointed if any of our players chose not to attend. If they were adamant about it, I wouldn’t force them to go. I’m not going to put their scholarship on the line and make them do something that they feel that strongly about. But I would let them know as their coach, a guy that tries mentor them and try to educate and try to prevent that from happening. But at the end of the day, they’re human beings and they don’t live in a country where you’re forced to do what you don’t want to do.

“I’d be OK coaching somebody that would be against. I would just be disappointed in their unwillingness to understand that their country has moved forward. Contrary to what the media wants us to get us believe, we haven’t moved backwards, we’ve moved forward in the last 50 years. Since my family arrived in this country, this country has moved forward. Does it move forward at a great rate, great pace, is it perfect? No. But it’s moved forward.”

“For us to act like one person runs or controls the decision of this country is false. It’d be a disservice to what this country stands for, what we’re about and my love for the opportunity this country has given me for me to get selfish because of my personal views on one person and not be supportive of the thing as a whole.”