In late August of 2005, a Category 5 visitor by the name of Hurricane Katrina made her presence known, absolutely devastating the city of New Orleans. Just seven months later, the city would receive a precisely different sort of presence—this one by the name of Drew Christopher Brees. On March 14, 2006, a 6’0” 27-year-old free-agent Brees would sign with the New Orleans Saints, and as the saying goes, the rest was history. Fifteen years later, on March 14, 2021, Brees declared his final farewell to the game of football, a game he will be leaving as arguably the most efficient passer in NFL history.
Brees would make his NFL debut twenty years prior is not the first, but the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft with the San Diego Chargers. Unlike his draftmate Michael Vick, who would be selected No.1 overall, Brees would have no flashing lights entering the league.
After five years, Brees would leave the Chargers to rebuild his career with the Saints, a franchise who whole-heartedly believed in him as their starting QB despite shoulder injuries he had had in San Diego. After Hurricane Katrina, Brees was not alone as a battered New Orleans looked to do some rebuilding of its own.
Drew Brees and his wife Brittany’s Brees Dream Foundation would be on the frontlines putting forth funding towards rebuilding communities in New Orleans through schools like the Lusher Charter School and organizations like the New Orleans Outreach for after-school assistance, the New Orleans Recreation Department towards the restoration of Pontchartrain Park, as well as the Greater New Orleans Rebuild Child Care Collaborative, to restore child-care facilities lost to Katrina.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Bree’s wife Brittany said, “As those few days [of free agency] went by, Drew and I felt that maybe we were being called to New Orleans for a reason.” The pair, of course, in 2006, would have no way of knowing the full impact they would have on the city.
On February 7, 2010, Brees would introduce the Big Easy to a new title, Super Bowl XLIV Champions! As their opponents were the mighty Peyton Manning-led Indianapolis Colts, who were Super Bowl Champions themselves, the idea of the Saints winning had been a longshot. The 6’0” underdog had mutually rewritten history and installed a new set of confidence to the city of New Orleans.
Although winning is always the goal of any competitor, this would prove to be only one of Brees’ many accomplishments in his Hall of Fame career.
Drew Brees Career NFL Records:
· Most career passing yards: 80,358
· Most career completions: 7,142
· Best career completion percentage: 67.7%
· Most Consecutive games with 20+ completions: 61
· Most Consecutive games with TD passes: 54
· Most completions in a season: 471 (2016)
· Best completion percentage in a season: 74.4% (2018)
· (Tied) Most passing touchdown in a game: 7 (Nov.1, 2015)
· Most games with 300+ passing yards: 123
· Most games with 4+ passing touchdowns: 37
· Most games with 5+ passing touchdown: 11
· Most seasons with 30+ passing touchdowns: 10
· Only player in NFL history with consecutive 40+ TD seasons: 2011, 2012
· Only player in NFL history with 60 consecutive TD passes: 2016 (including postseason)
Unlike his QB peers, Peyton Manning (6’5”) and Tom Brady (6’4”), Brees would play his career from a different vantage point, bringing the saying “Heart Over Height” new life.
Drew Brees remains a member of a club that’s so elite. There’s only one member… himself. Brees is the only QB to have 5, yes 5 seasons of 5,000 yards while everyone else in NFL history has a total of 7… combined!
As Brees has four of the top five single-season completion percentage marks in NFL history, he is also the only player in NFL history with consecutive seasons completing 70% of his passes, an accomplishment he achieved not around his Super Bowl season, but in the final five seasons of his career!
Safe to say that Drew Brees no doubt values these accomplishments immensely, but it is his work in the Crescent City that holds a different weight. When the 2020 global pandemic struck the world, Brees and his wife Brittany took action to serve the New Orleans community, as they’ve been no strangers to devastation.
In March, the Brees Dream Foundation would open a food bank in Lafayette, La that would by June surpass $40 million in donations. In July the pair would again join forces with their foundation to donate $5 million to build multiple health care centers throughout Louisiana in a partnership with Ochsner Health.
On Monday, one day after he announced his retirement from the NFL, Brees’ issued a personal letter in the New Orleans Times-Picayune addressed to the Big Easy and the Saints franchise at large in which he said:
“Words cannot express the love and appreciation I have for you. From the moment I stepped foot into the city of New Orleans, I could feel your spirit. You told me that if I loved New Orleans, you would love me back. No truer words have ever been spoken,” he wrote addressing the city and Saints fans. “You embraced me as your QB, and my family as your own. You made me strive to be the best I could be for you. When I was knocked down, you picked me up. It was your passion, emotion, and resilience that made us all believe. I will spend the rest of my life attempting to give back to you what you have given to me. My family and I will always love you.”
Brees career was threaded together by staggering Hall of Fame numbers along with a historic Super Bowl Championship that brought new life to the Big Crescent. After over a decade, the city of New Orleans, a city that in March of 2006 needed hope that went well beyond the game of football, will remember Brees’ legacy for more. As one Saint goes marching out, one thing’s for sure #9 is truly one of one.
Brees shared a post to his Instagram account in final farewell address to not only the game, but also the city he did it all for in which he said “Each day, I poured my heart and soul into being your quarterback… You have molded me, strengthened me, inspired me, and given me a lifetime of memories… I am only retiring from football, I am not retiring from New Orleans. This is not goodbye, rather a new beginning.”
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