Drew Brees' Hall of Fame Brilliance, Through Teammates' Eyes
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Drew Brees will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday as the fifth primary Saints player, with more than 10 former teammates and coaches speaking to ESPN about his career.
- A 360-degree labrum tear and partial rotator cuff tear in his final Chargers appearance — repaired by Dr. James Andrews with more than 10 anchors — ended Brees' San Diego career and led him to New Orleans, where he spent 15 record-setting seasons and won Super Bowl XLIV.
- Brees retired with a 67.7% career completion percentage, an NFL record at the time, and still holds four of the top 10 spots for single-season completion percentage.
- The shoulder injury sidelined Brees for just one game in his first 13 Saints seasons; a thumb injury and broken ribs later cost him nine games, and his final appearance was a 2020 playoff loss to Tampa Bay played before fewer than 5,000 fans due to COVID-19 restrictions.
- Former teammates Cameron Jordan, Alvin Kamara, Jimmy Graham and Marques Colston described Brees taking solo "mental reps" on the indoor practice field on Saturdays, arriving at the facility by 5:30 a.m., and obsessing over the placement of every throw.
- Current Saints quarterback Tyler Shough, 26, said he struggled to keep up with the 47-year-old Brees during offseason kettle bell workouts in California this summer, while running back Travis Etienne Jr. — a Louisiana native who grew up watching Brees — asked for a photo to mark the moment.
Why it matters: Brees' enshrinement cements the Saints' 2009-2020 era, anchored by Super Bowl XLIV and a post-Hurricane Katrina cultural resurgence, with the franchise's all-time passing leader joining four other primary Saints players in Canton. His retired 67.7% completion rate, an NFL record at the time, remains the benchmark current Saints like Shough measure themselves against.
