Josh Sweat’s father visited his son at Florida State, flipped a light switch in his room and witnessed a startling contraption. This wasn’t a student’s standard-issued laptop on his desk. It was a homemade computer with bright lights and water flowing.
“What are you doing here? Are you building bombs? What’s going on?” asked William Washington, Sweat’s father.
“No, Dad,” Sweat said. “That’s coolant.”
“I never even knew computers had that!” Washington said.
Sweat, the Eagles’ burgeoning, 25-year-old pass-rushing star builds computers. From scratch. With his 10 1/4-inch hands manipulating small parts.
Outside the Eagles’ locker room, Sweat explained the process with a straight face.
“It’s a lot easier than you think,” he insisted.
Once you have the components, it should only take a few hours. Sure, the casings can present a challenge. And if you add water cooling, that raises the level of difficulty. Otherwise, it’s simple.
There are certain hobbies that are common in NFL locker rooms. You can talk golf in one corner, gaming in another. Music and food are popular topics. Then there’s Sweat building computers — more than 20 in the past decade, each one better and different than the one before — and his eyes widening while explaining the intricacies of his latest creation.
“You would never expect Sweaty to be really nerdy, but he really is,” Eagles linebacker Patrick Johnson said. “He’s completely opposite of what you’d expect from somebody (like him).”
“I would say they’re not typical for an NFL player,” Eagles assistant coach Jeremiah Washburn said of Sweat’s hobbies. “He does have some unique interests.”
This is the way Sweat’s mind works. He can walk into Best Buy and purchase a computer, but it wouldn’t be the same. The motion rate would lag. The design would lack an artistic flair. It’s better to do it his way. Because for Sweat, beauty comes from reconstructing chaos.
He was once a top-10 recruit who left a high school game in an ambulance because of a knee injury that threatened his career. He missed last postseason because of a ruptured artery that threatened his life. Each time, he needed to rebuild himself just like a computer built from scratch.
In between, he was a fourth-round pick whose athleticism outpaced his skill. By his own admission, he needed to learn how to rush the quarterback upon entering the NFL. Now he’s a top-of-the-league sack artist, with 11 this season.
Each project became a maniacal desire, one that’s hidden behind layers seldom revealed to the public. You don’t know the power by looking at a computer, and you don’t know Sweat by seeing him walk through a room.
“Josh has always been one mind-focused,” Washington said. “Because he gets compartmentalized. And that’s how he rebuilt himself. Because every time there’s a challenge, if he decides, ‘I’m gonna go over this hurdle,’ he just becomes so focused on it. And sometimes it’s scary. He gets so focused on things, that that’s the only thing that matters.”
Sweat’s interest in building computers dates back to high school in Chesapeake, Va. He’s an avid video gamer and learned that gaming is better on a PC than a traditional console.
“He asked for money to buy a really expensive computer,” Washington said. “…….