By 
It’s Good To Be Drew Brees These DaysAny one who knows me knows what kind of man-crush I have on New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. I may moonlight as a Pittsburgh Steelers blogger, but I’m every bit the Brees fan. It’s been that way since I attended grade school with him in Austin, Texas and saw him do things athletically as a 7th and 8th grader that I, despite just being 10 or 11 years old myself, knew damn well were ridiculous and a foretaste of what he might go on to do in sports. Wow, I better stop myself. Nobody cares. Suffice it to say though, I was excited that Brees finally proved to the world what I’d known for the past 15 or so years – that he’s a once in a generation quarterback in terms of accuracy, as competitive as the MJ’s and Kobe’s of the world, and a good guy that’s easy to cheer for to boot.Brees joined XX Sports Radio in his former stomping grounds of San Diego to talk about how hectic life’s been since being the MVP of New Orleans’ Super Bowl victory over Indianapolis, some of the unique opportunities he’s had since then including what it was like playing golf with Jack Nicklaus, Dan Marino and Kenny G in a pro-am in March, and his thoughts on former teammate and good friend LaDainian Tomlinson’s change of scenery this off-season.
On if things in his life have slowed down a bit since the rush of activities that accompanied him and the Saints winning the Super Bowl:
“Yeah, I guess it’s been about what, eight weeks since the Super Bowl? It’s really been crazy, pretty overwhelming at times. But I don’t know. It’s been fun. I’ve had some pretty unique opportunities, and I’ve just tried to take advantage of those and I mean, it’s gone by fast. I’ve tried to get family time in, and tried to relax a little bit but that’s been hard. I just got back from a USO trip last week, ten days overseas, and then kind of went riding into Easter weekend. So this Easter weekend was really kind of my first chance to kind of take a deep breath and just relax and be with family and that kind of thing. So hopefully from here on out it will continue to be that way, and just start preparing for next season.”
On some of the unique opportunities he’s had other than going on Oprah, Letterman and Ellen and traveling overseas for a USO Tour:
“I had the chance to play golf with Jack Nicklaus down in West Palm Beach at the Honda Classic. That was mid-March. That was a blast. How many chances do you get to do that?”
Brees was interrupted to ask if he beat The Golden Bear:
“You know, I don’t think I did. We didn’t keep score. It was a pro-am for the tournament, and our group was Dan Marino, myself, Kenny G and Jack Nicklaus.”
The guys then interrupt Brees to ask how Kenny G possibly made his way into that group:
“Well, it was the Kenny G Gold Pro-Am that we were playing. And he’s a scratch golfer, so I guess that’s how he got in.”
On if he was at all nervous around an icon like Nicklaus, unsure of what to talk about at any given moment:
“Oh, absolutely, and especially since I had not played a round of golf since last June. It’d been about seven months since I’d even picked up a club and now I’m having to play a pro-am with The Golden Bear. So that first tee was pretty nerve wracking. But he’s an Ohio State guy, he’s a Midwest guy, so we had that in common and talked a little bit about that. And it was right in the middle of March Madness, so we were talking Big 10 basketball, college basketball. But other than that, it is, because there is a pretty big generational gap there between me and him. But still, he’s such an outgoing guy, and at one point in the round, he was watching my swing and kind of giving me swing tips and lessons, and he’ll kind of just drop three balls in the fairway and hit a couple and just show me a different technique. So it was really a great experience, once in a lifetime.”
Brees was then pressed about how the guys at XX Sports Radio didn’t buy that a competitor like him could possibly not take score in a setting like that:
“I know what I show, and I know I beat Marino and Kenny G. I’m just not sure I beat The Golden Bear. Now my goal was to beat him going into this thing, but I think he beat me by about 3 strokes.”
On if he’s excited that the Chargers will be heading down to New Orleans for the third game of the 2010 preseason:
“You know what? I’ll be honest, it got me a little excited. I saw when they announced it, I was actually here in San Diego. I guess they announced it last week, I saw it kind of pop up on T.V. and I got a little excited. You know, third preseason game, thats where the starters will get the most significant playing time of any time in the preseason. And the fact that the Chargers are coming to the Dome – that’s fun. Yeah, that adds some excitement to it. Despite the fact that L.T.’s gone and there still remains to be a lot of changes between now and then, yeah, it is a little bit extra.”
On LaDainian Tomlinson and his move from the Chargers to the Jets:
“You know what? I’m happy for him, I’m extremely happy for him. Ever since he had the story-book season in 2006, where he broke the record, NFL MVP, and obviously the success of the team, since then it just seems like he hasn’t really gotten the opportunities, or it seemed like he was the L.T. that we all know. So I think that this is kind of a rejuvenation for him – the opportunity to go to a new team, but yet still be in a system that he’s pretty familiar with. Obviously Brian Schottenheimer being there as the offensive coordinator running a lot of the same things that Cam [Cameron] ran when we were here together. And those were some of L.T.’s best years. So I think L.T. is confident about that, feels good about that. You know, he’s just one of those ultra-competitive guys that you know is going to have a chip on his shoulder. He seems to always play that way. And I think he’s still got some great years in him. So I’m excited for him and I think it’s a good change for him. Obviously the Chargers decided to go in a different direction, and I’m sure they’ll be successful as well. So it will work out for everybody.”
Comments