Incident report reveals new details on Clemson player’s traffic stop, citation
The night before Clemson football hosted Duke, a backup defensive end was pulled over by police around 2 a.m. for improperly passing a car and speeding.
During a traffic stop near campus, university police wrote that they detected a “strong odor of marijuana” coming from Clemson player Ari Watford’s Chevy truck and ultimately discovered a small package of marijuana, a “small marijuana cigarette” and two opened bottles of liquor in the vehicle.
That’s according to a Clemson University Police Department incident report, which provides new details on Watford, 18, being cited for “false representation of age to obtain liquors” on Nov. 1. The State obtained the incident report and Watford’s citation via public records request.
Watford was not handcuffed or arrested at the scene, and he was not issued a citation for marijuana possession (the drug remains illegal in SC). A male non-student passenger in the car, who was also under 21, did not receive any citations.
Watford, a former four-star recruit from Virginia, has spent the 2025 season rehabbing from a torn ACL injury suffered in high school. He hasn’t appeared in a game yet for the Tigers and is taking an injury redshirt year.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Nov. 4 he had no comment on Watford’s situation, other than the fact he was “aware of it, and we’ll deal with that.”
Here are more details about Watford’s citation, per records:
New details on Ari Watford traffic stop, citation
Friday, Oct. 31 was Halloween night and the day before Clemson football hosted Duke at Memorial Stadium. A few hours after midnight, a CUPD officer wrote that she saw a truck improperly pass another vehicle and drive “at a high rate of speed.”
The truck was going 52 mph in a 40 mph zone, per the officer, and was “also unable to maintain its lane” and was “riding on the dotted white line” instead of staying in its lane. CUPD initiated a traffic stop at Clemson’s Snow Family Outdoor Fitness and Wellness Complex in Seneca at 2:03 a.m. on Nov. 1.
An officer allegedly smelled a “strong odor of marijuana” coming from the car and asked Watford, the driver, the last time he’d smoked.
“He stated yesterday,” the officer wrote.
A second CUPD officer, who assisted with the traffic stop, wrote that he retrieved “a container with a green leafy substance” from the jacket pocket of the other person in the car, a non-student male who had three grams of marijuana in his possession.
A vehicle search allegedly also revealed a marijuana cigarette and two bottles of liquor, which had been opened and “were placed in a bookbag in the back of the truck within reach of the driver and the passenger.”
Watford admitted to having the alcohol in his possession, CUPD wrote.
CUPD’s incident report indicates Watford was compliant with police throughout the traffic stop. His citation was formally listed online as “False representation of age to obtain liquors,” which generally relates to a fake ID. But Watford’s citation centers more around “purchase or possession of alcoholic liquors” by someone under 21, according to the report. Those citations fall under the same umbrella.
The report did not mention Watford possessing or using a fake ID.
Per online Pickens County court records, Watford must appear in traffic court Dec. 10 and pay $465 in fines after his citation. If he’s found guilty, he must also enroll in an alcohol education program, which allows first-time offenders to have their charges/citations dismissed and ultimately expunged from the court system.
The Clemson football team stays at a team hotel in Anderson the night before home games. But hotel trips are limited to players on the “travel roster,” the 80-person group that travels to ACC road games for the Tigers and includes starters and other key contributors. Other play stay in their regular dorms/apartments.
Watford has not been on the travel roster at any point this season, so he was not supposed to be at the team hotel the night of his citation.
This story was originally published November 19, 2025 at 12:13 PM.
