Clemson's roster has had plenty of sons of former NFL players. Here’s why they keep choosing the Tigers.
Being the son of a former professional football player has its advantages and downsides, but the most valuable trait isn’t genetics.
Whether a Super Bowl champion, a long-tenured starter to a team or one who fell victim to the injury bug, they all seem to prioritize the same future for their sons: life after football.
It’s caused previous players within the program to end up with Clemson, and it’s already spilling into future classes.
Two current players fit this scenario for the program: second-year players Brayden Jacobs and Logan Brooking. Jacobs is the son of nine-year running back Brandon Jacobs, who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants. Brooking’s father, Keith, spent 15 years with the NFL as a linebacker for three different teams.
Yet, the genetics aren’t the only quality that they bring to the table; it’s the advice. And in this case, it’s putting a focus on what a program would bring outside of the gridiron.
They saw it from the start on both of their visits to Clemson, beginning with Dabo Swinney at the top.
“Clemson is the same after signing as they are before signing,” Brandon Jacobs said on the program’s “2 Right Turns” podcast. “They treat you the same. There’s no difference.”
Keith played at Memorial Stadium as a member of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in 1996, but he didn’t get enough time to fully understand the culture behind the program. Fast forward more than 25 years, and he finally got to experience that with his oldest son.
It only took Brooking and his wife, Holly, an hour into their visit to hope that Logan would end up with the Tigers.
“I knew the type of program that he ran and really admired it from afar, but that was from afar,” Keith Brooking said. “It didn’t take very long to figure out that everything that you’ve heard is spot on.”
It begins with graduation, which Clemson prides itself on as being the [Power Four program with the highest graduation rate](https://clemsontigers.com/news/2025/11/19/clemson-athletics-registers-96-graduation-success-rate-in-ncaa-release). In his 16 seasons, Swinney has graduated 424 out of a possible 430 seniors.
College football analyst and former two-time All-American, David Pollack, is a prime example of focusing on life after football. Now, his son, Nicholas, is one of the Tigers’ newest commitments for the 2027 class.
“It’s really unique. Graduation rate matters. Retention rate matters, and he’s one of the only ones that can brag about this, and if I was him, I would keep bragging about it,” he said on his podcast, “See Ball Get Ball With David Pollack.”
The value isn’t the name on the back of the jersey; it’s rather from knowing what they previously wished they had known. Put that with how NIL and revenue share are changing the way recruiting and retention are handled in this era, and Clemson is the perfect storm for those who want the best of both worlds.
That’s why these former players are blown away by the recruiting process.
“Just with the environment and the landscape of college football today, and you start visiting some of these other schools and just seeing the way they operate, Clemson just absolutely, totally, 100 percent separated itself from me and my wife,” Brooking said.
“(Swinney) said all this great stuff, and I’m like that’s what I needed to hear from my kid because I don’t know if the NFL is in my son’s future,” Jacobs added. “But, I needed to hear that he can come here and he can get a degree.”
Others know the power that can hold. Former Clemson linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is another example. His father, Jeremiah Sr., played in the NFL for 10 seasons.
Although never playing in the NFL, college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit had a son, Tye, walk onto the program and leave with a degree in marketing in 2023.
All-Pro cornerback Antonio Cromartie now has two of his children committed to the program. His son, Julian, recently announced he will be a part of the Tigers’ receiving corps in the near future, while his daughter, JerzieBlu, is a gymnastics commitment. Both will be joining in 2027.
When it comes to Swinney, Cromartie said he “hasn’t changed since we first met.”
Knowing the unfortunate ways that a career could end, Clemson brings other aspects of life into the fold that other programs don’t. It makes it much easier for many of these parents to buy into that.
Jacobs put it simply: “It’s been the same here in Clemson, and I wish, as a football player growing up, I wish I could have had the opportunity as a player to be playing at a place like this.”