Here’s why Brett Favre stopped by Clemson’s football practice

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney warms up for every practice by tossing the football around with a manager. He traded out playing catch with a member of Clemson’s staff for an NFL Hall of Famer on Wednesday.

NFL legend Brett Favre spent the day with Clemson Wednesday, meeting with the team in the morning and attending practice later in the afternoon.

Favre, whose Southern Miss team beat Swinney’s Alabama team in 1990, showed off impressive arm strength for a 48-year-old.

“That was a little different velocity coming at me, but I was 100 percent (catching) so that was a good deal for me,” Swinney said laughing. “But it was really cool. And he’s exactly as you think he is. He was great with the guys, was very interactive, he kind of had some things he talked about and then we just opened up and went wherever the players wanted to go and it was a lot of fun. A lot of great stories, so it was great for them to meet him.”

Swinney met Favre for the first time this spring during an event in Hattiesburg, Miss. The two spent an hour together chatting before the event started and have stayed in touch since.

Swinney recently reached out to Favre and asked if he would be interested in coming and speaking with the team and Favre agreed to do so.

“We always bring in different people from time to time in the monotony of camp just to kind of give a different voice and another perspective,” Swinney said. “Here’s a guy who played 20 years in the NFL, obviously has a very documented career. He was excited to come and had never been here. So it was great. He came in early this morning and stayed all day and I think he really enjoyed Clemson and just being around. So it was a lot of fun to have him here and I can say one of my goals was to catch a pass from Brett Favre. I didn’t quite get to do it the way I wanted to, but it happened today so that was kind of neat.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2018 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Here’s why Brett Favre stopped by Clemson’s football practice."