A Discussion With New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees
By The Running Back Staff
MIAMI, Fla. – He’s the man who has been given the task of revitalizing the city of New Orleans.
Even though billions more must be spent to bring the city back to the way it was before Hurricane Katrina the football team for whom Drew Brees plays quarterback, has given the beleaguered city a gigantic boost.
Brees is 31, and a graduate of Purdue University, but this a guy who was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and still considers himself a Texan. Now, in his ninth NFL season, he was originally drafted and starred for the San Diego Chargers, but he came to New Orleans after an injury ended his 2005 season and he’s been lights out.
This season, he threw for 34 touchdowns and 4,388 yards — on a remarkable 70.3 per cent completion mark. His quarterback rating was a tremendous 109.6. He has taken the Saints to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.
On a couple of occasions this week, www.therunningback.com has been able to sit down with Drew Brees and get our microphone in his face. He’s been terrific with the media and with thanks to the National Football League, here are excerpts from our conversations with the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints.
RB: What does it mean to be the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints and representing the City of New Orleans?
DB: “It’s a great source of strength for us and our team, just knowing that we are playing for much more than another ‘W’ or a Super Bowl for our organization. It’s a Super Bowl for our city and our fans and everything they’ve been through the last few years. There is no organization or city that deserves a champion more than New Orleans.”
RB: What does the Super Bowl mean to you and the City of New Orleans?
“It means so much. I have met season-ticket holders since New Orleans started in 1967. For so many of them, just to have waited so long through so many tough times to this point, and what people went through in New Orleans post-Katrina, it’s so much more than just a game to us. It’s a feeling that we have an opportunity to give them so much hope, lift their spirits and give them something they deserve.”
RB: Do you feel any pressure from Saints fans who have been dreaming of this Super Bowl opportunity?
“We don’t look at it as pressure. We feel like we are playing for so much more than just to win a game for our organization or team, we’re playing for an entire city and region. And you could say for an entire country because there are still so many New Orleans natives who had to evacuate after Katrina who have not been able to move back yet. We know we have fans across the country who are pulling for us and rooting for us, fans who will eventually come back to New Orleans, but are just waiting for the right time. Whatever we can do to give them hope and raise their spirits, that’s what we want to do.”
RB: You were a star in San Diego, then you were injured and then Phillip Rivers took your job. Tell us how you got through that.
“The injury happened in the last game of the 2005 season, my fifth year in San Diego in which I did not have a contract after that. All of a sudden here I am thrust into free agency two months after a right shoulder dislocation, which I was told by some doctors that I had a 25 percent chance of coming back and ever playing. Only two teams were interested in me in free agency to be the starting quarterback – Miami and New Orleans. That was a defining moment in my life and one that brought me to New Orleans with a sense that this is a calling for me, an opportunity that I have to not only come to a city and be a part of the rebuilding of the organization, city, community and region. This was an opportunity that really doesn’t come along for most people in their lifetime, and yet here it is staring me in the face. So it was much more than football and I felt it was destiny that God put me there for a reason. It’s been such a special experience. I was embraced by the city in a way that I can’t even describe. My wife and I had our first child in New Orleans a year ago, so it seems like so many things beyond football, from the standpoint of our family. Our foundation (Brees Dream Foundation) has raised or committed $3 million dollars to the city of New Orleans. That’s just the beginning. I want to be somebody who is not only a leader on my football team, but a leader in the community, somebody who is going to follow through with what I say I am going to do, be accountable, show integrity and give back.”
RB: You have had a brilliant career, but you’ve also faced adversity. How did you deal with it and is it a reason why you’re here today?
“You have to go through some tough times and fight through adversity in order to get to this kind of level and have these types of opportunities. Had you not gone through some of those things earlier in the history of this organization or in my own career, you wouldn’t have learned the lessons you learned in order to get here – have that chip on your shoulder or have the motivation we have to be here and take part in the Super Bowl. I believe wholeheartedly the fact that everything happens for a reason. At times, God is going to put you in a position to wonder why this is happening to me or to us, and yet you know it’s happening for a reason. It’s there to make you stronger and to give the opportunity to accomplish something later on – and here we are.”
RB: When did you feel you had become comfortable in a Saints uniform?
“It was right away. That first year in New Orleans in 2006, we made it to the NFC Championship Game, the first time in the history of the club. It seems like we have had so many ‘firsts’ as a part of that organization, a first time to go to the NFC Championship Game, and this year a first time to start 13-0, first time to host an NFC Championship Game, first time to be in a Super Bowl and hopefully it will be the first Super Bowl championship as well. My wife and I felt like a part of the community quickly because of the way we were embraced by the city. I’ve had more people come up to me on the street who tell me, ‘Thank you for being part of our city. Thank you for being a part of our community. Thank you for what you have done and by the way, good luck on Sunday, but we love you for being part of this community.’”
RB: Where did you come up with that chant that you use to lead your team before a game?
“I am not going to tell you what we say because that’s what makes it unique and special, because it is just for us. It’s for our team, and if you are a member of our team, you know the chant. For everybody else, you can keep wondering what we are saying. I think that’s unique because each year there is an inspiration for that. This year’s inspiration was from an USO trip that I went on to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. I got to do P.T. (physical training) with the Marines one morning, and as we are jogging in formation and doing calisthenics, there are all of these chants that the Marines do. So I took one of those chants, made it applicable to us as a team, and that’s what we chant about. It’s inspired by the Marines at Guantanamo Bay. That makes it unique.”
RB: It’s here. You’re now at the Super Bowl. Who have you turned to for advice or inspiration this week?
“I talked to a few quarterbacks who have been in this situation before, Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. Also, our head coach Sean Payton was here as a coordinator in 2000 with the Giants. He was able to give me some words of wisdom on how to approach the week and how to handle it and prepare to deal with the media and the hype and stay within your routine.”
RB: So tell us, what’s your formula for success against the Colts?
“We have to be balanced and mix the run and the pass. We have to have a plan for their pass rush, because we know how they can rush the passer. Take care of the football, try to keep Peyton (Manning) and that offense off the field as much as possible and take advantage of the opportunities when we get them.”
RB: The big game will be played here in Miami at a stadium that meant something to you this season. How did that big comeback against the Dolphins earlier this year prepare you for Sunday’s game?
“Walking into the stadium today for practice and for the Pro Bowl, all those memories come back from that game, everything that transpired. Being down 24-3 in the second quarter and going into halftime with that touchdown with six seconds left where we jump over the top. We score feeling like that was what we needed momentum-wise, and we come out in the second half with an interception return for a touchdown, just this sequence of events where all of the sudden we have this huge come-from-behind victory. The feeling in that locker room, looking around and saying, ‘You know what? This is the feeling that we want a couple of months from now on Super Bowl Sunday when we come back here.’ And sure enough, here we are and I hope we do have that same feeling in the locker room.”
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1 Comment
Drew Brees is something else. I figured he’d be more cocky but he seems pretty laid back!
I like how he reflects back on his career… He left San Diego on bad terms that was no fault of his own. Its better now that hes with the Saints! Love it!