Brees, Drew

Drew Brees, (born January 15, 1979, Dallas, Texas, U.S.), American gridiron football quarterback who was one of the most prolific passers in National Football League (NFL) history and set numerous single-season and career passing records, including the all-time marks for pass completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. He led the New Orleans Saints to the team’s first Super Bowl championship (2010).

Brees was a standout high-school football player in Austin, Texas, leading his team to a state title and taking Texas 5A (the division that features the state’s largest high schools) Offensive Player of the Year honours in 1996. Considered too short (standing 6 feet [1.83 metres] tall) and too weak-armed by the major college programs in his home state, he attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Brees was a three-year starter at Purdue, where he set school and Big Ten Conference records for almost every major career passing statistic, including passing yards and touchdowns. In his senior season he led the Purdue Boilermakers to their first Rose Bowl berth in 34 years and finished third in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

Brees was selected by the San Diego Chargers with the first pick of the second round of the 2001 NFL draft. He became the team’s starting quarterback in his second season, but he failed to quickly turn around the then-woeful Chargers and in his third year lost playing time to 41-year-old Doug Flutie. When the Chargers acquired promising rookie quarterback Philip Rivers in 2004, it was assumed that Brees’s days in San Diego were numbered. Brees, however, remained the Chargers’ starting quarterback during the 2004 season and led the team to a surprising 12–4 record en route to earning the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award and Pro Bowl honours. He followed this with a solid if unspectacular season in 2005, but a shoulder injury in the season finale made the Chargers wary of signing him to a long-term contract, and Brees instead signed a free agent deal with the Saints.

Drew Brees

In his first year in New Orleans, Brees reversed the fortunes of a team that had gone 3–13 the previous season, leading the Saints to a 10–6 record in 2006 and a berth in the National Football Conference (NFC) championship game. While playing in head coach Sean Payton’s innovative offense, he led the league in passing yards that year and was named first-team All-Pro for his efforts. In 2008 Brees threw for 5,069 yards—15 fewer than Dan Marino’s single-season record—and was once again voted to the Pro Bowl. In 2009 Brees had another Pro Bowl season and set an NFL record by completing 70.6 percent of his passes. More significantly, he led the Saints to a franchise-best 13–0 start and the franchise’s first Super Bowl berth, a victory over the Indianapolis Colts. In the Super Bowl, Brees completed 32 passes (which tied Tom Brady’s Super Bowl record) for 288 yards and two touchdowns, and he was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

Brees again led the Saints to the playoffs the following season, but the team was upset by a seven-win Seattle Seahawks squad in the opening round of the postseason. In 2011 Brees broke Marino’s single-season passing yardage record, finishing the season with 5,476 yards through the air. (Peyton Manning surpassed Brees’s mark by one yard in 2013.) He also broke his own league record for completion percentage (71.2), established an all-time NFL mark by passing for more than 300 yards in 13 games, and threw a personal-best 46 touchdown passes. In 2012 he broke Johnny Unitas’s record for most consecutive games with a touchdown pass when he threw for a score in his 48th straight game (his record ultimately reached 54 games), and he finished the year with 5,177 passing yards and a league-high 43 touchdowns. In 2013 Brees threw for 5,162 yards to notch his fourth career 5,000-yard season (at the time, no other player in NFL history had more than one). He again led the league in passing yardage (along with Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers) in 2014, with 4,952 yards, but the Saints had a disappointing season, going 7–9 in a weak division (all four NFC South teams finished the season with a losing record) to miss a playoff berth. Brees was the top passer in the NFL in both of the following seasons, with 4,870 and 5,208 yards, respectively, but the Saints remained mired in mediocrity, with consecutive 7–9 campaigns.

In 2017 the Saints rode a resurgent running game to 11 wins and a division title, but Brees’s passing numbers suffered (his 4,334 yards that season were the fewest in his time in New Orleans, although he did lead the NFL in pass completions [72 percent]). The Saints were notably eliminated in the playoffs when the Minnesota Vikings scored a stunning 61-yard game-winning touchdown as time expired in the teams’ divisional-round game. Brees got his 2018 season off to a historic start in September by setting the NFL standard for all-time pass completions, breaking Brett Favre’s record of 6,300. The following month he surpassed Manning’s record of 71,940 career passing yards. Brees finished the 2018 season with 3,992 passing yards and 32 touchdowns and set a new NFL record by completing 74.4 percent of his pass attempts. The Saints went 13–3 to earn the top seed in the NFC playoffs, but their postseason ended in heartbreak for a second straight year. In the NFC championship game, a badly missed penalty call prevented the Saints from likely clinching a victory in regulation time, and the team lost in overtime. Brees broke Manning’s record for career touchdown passes (539) in December 2019, during a season in which the Saints tied two other teams for the best record in the NFC (13–3). However, tie-breakers forced New Orleans to miss out on a bye and instead host a game during the opening postseason round, where the team was upset by the Vikings.