Swinney surprises popular team manager with Super Bowl tickets
By: will-vandervort January 31, 2019

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney surprised equipment manager David Saville with two Super Bowl tickets at a practice earlier this year.

The NFL presented Saville with the tickets and Swinney had the pleasure of giving Saville the tickets in front of the whole team.

“You do so much for this team with the joy that you bring every day, the perceptive, how hard you work,” Swinney told him in a video produced by Clemson Football on Twitter. “You are one of the hardest workers that we have around here.”

Saville and a guest will be in Atlanta on Sunday to watch the game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots.

Saville has become one of the most well-known figures on the Clemson football team during the Tigers’ run to two national championships the last three years. The Norcross, Ga., native’s story has been written by the national and local media as well as being the featured subject on ESPN and the ACC Network.

“David feels the room with joy and is just a wonderful spirit,” Swinney said in the video. “He gives our team and myself, unbelievable perspective and I have yet to see David Saville have a bad day.”

Saville, who was born with Down Syndrome, came to Clemson in 2011 as part of the ClemsonLIFE Program, which is a post-secondary transition program that helps people with special needs live and work independently. He started working for Swinney and the Clemson football program as an equipment manager in 2011.

Saville, who always has a positive demeanor and attitude, thrived in the program and has become one of the more popular figures in the Clemson football program.

At the end of the video, Swinney had one simple message for Saville.

“Have fun my man! You are my man!”