Fred McAfee Shows Off Saints Super Bowl Trophy

Fred McAfee with Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy

Former New Orleans Saints star and Mississippi College standout Fred McAfee was back home in Clinton as part of the NFL team’s Super Bowl Trophy Tour.

Stopping Monday at a BankPlus off Clinton Boulevard, McAfee signed autographs, posed for pictures with Saints fans and showed off the Vince Lombardi Trophy named for the legendary Green Bay Packers coach.

McAfee, the director of player personnel for the Saints, is a 1991 MC alumnus who excelled in football and track as a Choctaw.

As an NFL player for 16 seasons, McAfee played for the Saints, Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But it was really with the Saints that No. 25 was beloved by fans and where he made people stand up and cheer. McAfee was so good in fact that he was “drafted” to the Saints 40^th anniversary team in 2010. The New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame updates their all-time team every five years, choosing a dream team of top-notch Saints players. Other players on the super Saints team includes quarterback Archie Manning, wide receiver Joe Horn and Coach Jim Mora.

But it was in high school in Mississippi and later at Mississippi College where McAfee stepped up his game before heading to the NFL.

Attending Mississippi College, McAfee said, “was one of the best experiences I ever had.”

Players, fellow students, and coaches all “treated me like I was at home,” McAfee said as he took a brief break from the pictures with admirers, all big-time Saints fans.

He recalled one day on campus years ago when MC Choctaws basketball coach Mike Jones challenged him to beat a Choctaws hoops player in a sprint. McAfee was fully dressed in his MC football gear, but managed to speed by the basketball player to win the race. He also commended Jones, now MC’s athletic director, for being a good man during his MC undergraduate days.

McAfee also recalled the fun times on the Clinton campus when he lived at MC’s Chrestman Hall.

While the Saints didn’t make it to the 2011 Super Bowl that pits the Green Bay Packers against the Pittsburgh Steelers there’s always next year for star quarterback Drew Brees and teammates in the Louisiana Superdome.

Joining McAfee on the Super Bowl Trophy tour was former New Orleans Saints player Michael Lewis, who played in the NFL from 2001 to 2007. He also played with the San Francisco 49ers as a wide receiver and punt returner.

McAfee, who specialized in special teams and other positions in the NFL, gave his friend Michael Lewis a guided tour of the Mississippi College campus before leaving Clinton.