As in, they don't have the intellectual capacity to go back and associate something they did in the past with a negative outcome in the present, they're just putting on the sad face as a conflict reduction mechanism. Certain people, like Swinney, are just wholly incapable of feeling ashamed of something they said or did in the past. Let's say in 6 months, it comes to pass that there are no packed stadiums, and no games being played, and someone plays the clip of him saying that and asks him why he would make such a stupid prediction. Does anyone really think he's going to say something like "well I said that because I'm a football coach, which qualifies me as a world-class idiot in matters of public health/science/etc., and next time I'll just keep my mouth shut when someone asks me a question way out of my realm of expertise, which is limited to football."