Here’s why former NFL star Brett Favre was on South Carolina’s campus Sunday

An NFL Hall of Famer paid a visit to Columbia this weekend.

Former NFL star quarterback Brett Favre went by the South Carolina recruiting office Sunday, snapping photos with Gamecocks football director of on-campus recruiting Jessica Jackson. The photos were posted to Twitter by Jackson on Sunday afternoon.

A USC spokesperson said Favre was doing a campus tour with his daughter, Breleigh Favre, a volleyball player who played at Brett Favre’s alma mater, Southern Miss, as an undergraduate. Breleigh Favre was touring USC for graduate school, and the visit involved nothing football related, the school said.

“My job is pretty cool.. Thanks for stopping by @BrettFavre,” Jackson posted to Twitter with a football emoji.

It wasn’t Brett Favre’s first time visiting USC. In August 2015, Favre came by with his daughter, then a standout volleyball player out of high school, to attend a South Carolina volleyball match.

Favre visited the Gamecocks’ football practice that weekend, one week before the Gamecocks’ season opener against North Carolina. South Carolina was heading into its last year with Steve Spurrier as head coach before he retired in October 2015.

Favre was also the featured speaker at the South Carolina football coaches’ clinic in March 2017, when the Gamecocks were coached by Will Muschamp. Favre made passes to Gamecocks’ receivers during spring practice, as spotted in videos posted to South Carolina football’s Twitter that year.

Favre visited Dabo Swinney and Clemson in 2018 after Swinney extended an invite for Favre to speak with the Tigers. Favre and Swinney faced each other when Favre’s Southern Miss team defeated Swinney’s Alabama in 1990, but the two became friends in spring 2018 during an event in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Favre played in the NFL for 20 seasons, spending the majority of his career with the Green Bay Packers from 1992-2007. He was the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for 500 touchdowns and throw for over 70,000 yards, winning the league MVP three years in a row (1995-97), as well as the 1997 Super Bowl.