Drew Brees' greatness, as seen through eyes of teammates, coaches
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- Drew Brees will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday at noon ET as the fifth primary Saints player to receive the honor, capping 15 record-setting seasons in New Orleans that included a Super Bowl XLIV title and a central role in the city's post-Katrina recovery.
- Brees retired with a 67.7% career completion percentage — an NFL record at the time — and still owns four of the top 10 spots for single-season completion percentage, with his final season ranking 14th.
- Brees suffered a 360-degree labrum tear and partial rotator cuff tear in his final Chargers appearance; Dr. James Andrews installed more than 10 anchors in his right shoulder, and 20 years later he can no longer throw with that arm.
- Brees missed just one game to injury across his first 13 Saints seasons, though a thumb injury and broken ribs cost him nine games in his final two years; his last game was a playoff loss to Tampa Bay played before fewer than 5,000 fans due to COVID-19 restrictions.
- Teammates including Cameron Jordan, Alvin Kamara, Jimmy Graham, Marques Colston and Erik McCoy told ESPN Brees's edge was mental — he ran full game scripts alone in the dark indoor facility on Saturdays for over an hour, demanded specific ball placement on every throw, and obsessively repeated any rep that didn't go his way.
- Current Saints quarterback Tyler Shough, 26, said an offseason throwing session in California this summer with 47-year-old Brees left him humbled, joking he had to grab heavier kettle bells just to avoid getting "shown up" by the retired QB.
- Brees once beat Saints right tackle Zach Strief at ping-pong and then secretly practiced for a week to flip the result — a story former teammates cited as proof that his competitiveness extended well beyond football.
Why it matters: Brees's induction formalizes a Saints legacy built on a 67.7% career completion rate (an NFL record at the time) and a Super Bowl XLIV ring — and current Saints QB Tyler Shough, 26, is now the one working out alongside the 47-year-old icon, a reminder that New Orleans is still searching for the next face of the franchise. Teammates' accounts reframe Brees not as a physical marvel but as a mental one, which is the part the highlight reels never capture.
