Saints' Drew Brees retires after 20-year NFL career
Yahoo Sports' Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski discuss the career and legacy of the Saints, future HOF QB.
Video Transcript
[CHEERING]
MATT HARMON: The thing I want to focus on right now is this is an end of the era for the Saints in such a dramatic way because like, Sean Payton and Drew Brees have set the standard for offensive football in this league for years. I mean, again, I drafted Drew Brees on my first ever fantasy team, I think his first or second year in New Orleans. That was a fun ride.
So it's been a great ride with Drew Brees. They've elevated all these different players that we've loved in fantasy along the way. Now, I think the Saints are totally going-- well, they're into the wilderness now at this point.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Brees-- just his career is fascinating, right? San Diego's convinced that he's not enter quarterback. They draft Philip Rivers. Rivers signs late, so Brees has to start the season even though they didn't want to do it that way.
He has a Pro Bowl season perfectly timed with his walk year in free agency. OK, so here's Miami with their new up and coming coach from the college ranks. They're interested in Brees, but they get bad medicals on his shoulder. They decide not to sign Brees, so we never see what a Nick Saban, Drew Brees Miami Dolphins team might have looked like.
I mean, maybe Nick Saban never gets to Alabama because he would have won so much with Brees. We'll never know. It's a fascinating "what if."
So Brees goes to New Orleans. Easy to forget now. If you're a younger person, you might not know this. The Saints used to be one of the three or four teams that were kind of routinely mocked. A couple of years they had teams that were so bad the fans would wear bags over the their heads. They didn't go to the playoffs for so many years.
Yeah, they were the "Aints," right? There was the easy punch line to them. They had a lot of bad teams, and their fan base kind of felt snake bit. And when they got it right at quarterback with Brees and they got it right at head coach offensive line with Payton, these guys were a pinball machine for a decade and a half. And they were one of the primary favorites in the NFC for that entire run.
Of course, they win the one championship where they beat the Colts. I really think Brees should have won the MVP that year. Manning got it I think in part because maybe the Colts were undefeated a week later than the Saints. They both had great seasons.
But it feels bad to me that Brees doesn't have at least one MVP because I think he should have won that year. But it's a difficult legacy because Brees was fantasy royalty. He was Pro Bowl royalty. You won't find anybody in the league to say anything bad about him.
He's respected as a teammate. Go play that video-- halftime speech he gives at Purdue. Maybe it's the pregame speech that got those guys fired up. This is a guy you'd want to be in a foxhole with-- you'd want to play for.
But how do we reconcile the one trip to the Super Bowl? They never got back. If somebody had said to you after they beat the Colts-- and it's hard to win the NFL. There's a lot of good teams. And we've seen quarterbacks.
Like, Marino only went to one Super Bowl. Jim Kelly never won one, although they won a bunch of times. Rodgers, at the moment, is still sitting on one trip. It's hard to go. You need a lot of things to go right.
Everybody knows the Saints got jobbed by the officials against the Rams a couple of years ago. If they just make a chip shot field goal after that pass interference, they're in the Super Bowl a second time. It's just, I wish they had done more in the playoffs.
There's only one playoff season where Brees won two games. I'm like you. I'm a fan of the league. I want good stories. I want watchable football. I want athletes that I care about, that I want to learn about, that I can identify with.
I mean, Drew Brees checks all those boxes. He's just what the NFL should be about. And I just feel a little bit sad that ended this way. But, I mean, the old line from "Cocktail"-- just that "everything ends badly, or else it wouldn't end."
I mean, most people don't go out like John Elway. Most people go out like Dan Marino getting ransacked in Jacksonville. And I think Brees tried to play through an injury. Maybe he shouldn't have.
I think maybe Sean Payton theoretically should have maybe benched him in this game. But, I mean, it's Drew Brees' last game. I mean, how do you do that? You can't do that.
So walk-in Hall of Famer. I'm glad he has the title. u can never take that away from him. Remember, he was a part of New Orleans recovering-- the state of Louisiana recovering from a terrible natural disaster. I mean, the Saints had a big part in that of New Orleans coming back, and rebuilding, and feeling good about yourself, and having civic pride.
He's just a pillar of this industry. And I have so much respect for him, and I can't be happy about the way it ended for him. But that's, unfortunately, the way most sports careers end.