Clemson's Dabo Swinney gets his wish by catching a pass from NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre

Scott Keepfer | The Greenville News

CLEMSON — Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney admits that he’s always wanted to catch a pass from Brett Favre.

He finally got that chance Wednesday afternoon.

“That was a little different velocity coming at me,” Swinney said after snaring an aerial from Favre prior to his team’s practice Wednesday.

Swinney’s players were on the receiving end of a few well-timed deliveries from Favre as well.

When Will Swinney, Dabo’s oldest son and a reserve wide receiver on the team, asked how Favre adapted from the mild weather of Kiln, Mississippi, to the frigid cold of Green Bay, Wisconsin, early in his career, Favre deadpanned: “It was real hard…until I got my first paycheck. Then it got a lot easier.”

Favre, a 2016 NFL Hall of Fame inductee, spent a good portion of the day at Clemson, addressing the team during its morning meeting, then taking in the Tigers’ practice later in the day.

The visit, Swinney said, originated from a meeting with Favre last spring at an event in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Favre, who guided Southern Mississippi to a win against Alabama and a sophomore wide receiver by the name Dabo Swinney at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1990, met up with Swinney at the event in Hattiesburg and the two spent about an hour talking, which prompted Wednesday’s visit.

“We just kind of hit it off and had been texting and I just reached out to him and said, ‘Would you be interested in coming and just visiting with the team?’ ” Swinney said. “We always bring in different people from time to time, to break up the monotony of camp and just kind of give a different voice and different perspective.

“Here’s a guy that played 20 years in the NFL. He was excited to come and had never been here, so it was great.”

Swinney said Favre is a genuine person, with a “what you see is what you get” type of persona.

“He always had that mindset of having something to prove,” Swinney said. “And that’s one of the things that made him great.

“He’s exactly as you think he is. He was great with the guys, very interactive, kind of had some things he talked about and then he just opened it up and went wherever the players wanted to go. It was a lot of fun, a lot of great stories.”

Favre, 48, played 16 of his 20 NFL seasons with the Packers, guiding Green Bay to a Super Bowl title in 1997 and earning NFL Most Valuable Player recognition three times. He set numerous passing records during his career, including most career completions, most career attempts and most consecutive starts.