Payton and Brees

by Jeff Duncan

  “In the beginning of your career, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Brees said, explaining his thought process at the time. “So the more that you have a chance to be around great coaches and other great players, you begin to learn how to become a pro. And you know what? At some point, you kind of formulate that routine of, all right, now I’ve got it down. Now I’ve got the preparation down, right?

  “Well, what people don’t realize is that preparation, as you get older, it’s not like that goes away. It’s not like each week I sit there and go, ‘Oh, man. I’ve started like 300 NFL games. I’ve seen it; I’ve done it. I don’t need to prepare the way I used to.’ No. You’re going through the same process that you always have, the same number of hours watching the film and going through the checklist of things. So, the grind remains mentally, psychologically, the stress of, ‘What if they do this?’ and ‘I’ve got to have a plan for this.’ So you’re still investing that time. Well, oh, by the way, you’re getting older, so you’ve got to spend even more time on your body. And, oh, by the way, your kids are getting older. They’re involved in more things that you want to be a part of—more time. So at some point, there is a breaking point, right? Where there’s just not enough hours in the day to do all the things that you need to do, and want to do, that fulfills you and balances you out to be able to go and play the game—and play it at the highest level.”

  In his 19th NFL season, Brees started to sense his career mortality for the first time. When he returned from his thumb injury, he quipped about playing on borrowed time. When he set the passing touchdowns record in October, he spoke wistfully about his career passing in front of his eyes. A historian of the game, Brees was fully aware that 2001 NFL Draft classmate LaDainian Tomlinson had already been fitted for his gold jacket in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

  So it wasn’t a shock to Payton when Brees told him he needed time to think about his future. While Payton was bullish on Taysom Hill’s potential and truly believed in his ability to be a bona fide starting quarterback, he knew that Brees, even at 41, still gave his team the best shot to win a championship in 2020. Brees wasn’t limping to the finish line the way Favre and Peyton Manning did. In 2019, he led the NFL in completion percentage (74.3) for a third consecutive season and ranked second with a passer efficiency rating of 116.3. Like many of his teammates, he didn’t play his best in the season-ending loss to the Vikings, but he finished the regular season on a roll, posting sterling performances against the 49ers, Colts, and Titans.

  There was no question Brees could still play. The question was: Did he still want to play?

  For the first time in his Saints tenure, Payton had to seriously think about life without Brees in his huddle. When Brees announced his plans to return, Payton was ecstatic.

  “I’m excited because I know exactly how he played last year,” Payton said. “He’s playing at an elite level still. He’s done a fantastic job taking care of [himself] both mentally and physically, and it is really a credit to him.”

  When Payton and the Saints offensive staff graded Brees’ performance in 2019, they didn’t see any decline in his physical skill or ability to execute. There weren’t any throws he couldn’t make. No plays were eliminated from the offense to compensate for Brees’ age.

  “There hasn’t been that moment where we’ve looked at the film and thought, ‘Man, back in the day we used to complete those passes,” Payton said. “We haven’t seen that [decline].”

  Every offseason, Brees evaluates his routine, starting with two questions: Why do I do what I do? And how can I get better?

  He evaluates his performance from the previous season, then considers ways he can improve his offseason routine. That might be trying something new in regard to his preparation. It might be a different recovery technique. No stone is left unturned in his quest for improvement.

  “I feel like I’m pretty aware of what you lose with the aging process, so everything I do from a training perspective, from a recovery perspective, is to combat that,” Brees said. “You just try to stay ahead of that curve. And so far, I feel like I’m beating it.”

  In recent years, Brees shifted his offseason workout regimen toward extending his playing career. He placed an emphasis on listening to what his body told him. He likened his routine to that of Major League Baseball starting pitchers, who follow a regimented plan to peak their physical condition every fifth day of the week.

  Brees refers to this process as prolonging the prime. He and Tom House have focused his offseason workouts on certain areas of his body in an attempt to ward off the aging process and extend his shelf life as an effective NFL quarterback.

  “In the beginning of your career, you have these unbelievable physical skills, and we’re able to recover so quickly,” Brees said. “But your mental understanding of the game is lacking. Well, the more experience you gain, the more wisdom you gain. And your mental, emotional, psychological ability grows. But the unfortunate thing is the aging process, right? The physical skills begin to diminish. When your physical and mental ability both reach the same level, that’s your prime, but at some point the physical starts to drop off. Mentally, emotionally, you’ve got it. You see it. But your body won’t allow you to do it anymore, right?”

  Brees and House have tried to fight off Father Time by practicing the latest techniques in recovery, diet, and sleep. Brees met House in the early 2000s through former Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and began working regularly with him in 2004. He’s continued to work with him and his assistant Adam Dedeaux at 3DQB, their training facility in Huntington Beach, California. Brees regularly flies House in for training sessions and evaluation work during training camp and the season.

  House, 72, a former college and major-league pitching coach, started as a pitching tutor before turning his attention to football. House and his staff teach players the biomechanics of throwing a football. They work on balance, posture, and stride momentum. They focus on mechanics, footwork, and weight shift to build arm strength and increase throwing accuracy.

  These days, House works as much on Brees’ mental approach as he does his physical work. House connected Brees with Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, who pitched into his mid-forties and was one of Brees’ favorite players while growing up in Austin, Texas, to serve as a resource.

  “Our research says there’s no reason you can’t do at 45 what you did at 25—if you can pay the price,” House said. “Nobody knows how hard Drew actually works. He’s the hardest-working quarterback I’ve been around. He’s special. There are all kinds of guys who can throw a football. They know what to do, but they don’t know why. Drew is a what and a why guy, and his goal literally is to identify problems and come up with solutions.”

  House is convinced Brees can continue to play at an elite level into his mid-forties because of his work ethic, discipline, and open-mindedness.

  “What happens with a lot of elite athletes, they get to a certain level of expertise and they stop learning,” House said. “Drew and Nolan, the two superstars in my eyes, are trying to learn something new every day and you can throw that in front of people, not all of them input like they should. Drew does. He might be the best quarterback ever, and he’s still getting better. He’s better this year than he’s ever been for me. For all his checkpoints, he’s a better quarterback this year than he was last year.”

  Brees is still wired to compete. The drive that fueled his ascension from an overlooked high school prospect and NFL Draft afterthought to the top of his profession still burns hot in his belly. The competitor in Brees wants to make another Super Bowl run. Legacy matters to him. Winning titles has always motivated him more than breaking records. He won a state championship in high school, a Big Ten championship in college, and a Super Bowl title with the Saints. And he knows the Saints roster is loaded with several Pro Bowl talents in their primes. He also knows he’s still playing
well enough to lead the team back to the Promised Land.

  “Once you get to your late thirties, that’s when everybody starts telling you the end is near,” Brees said. “And I’m like, “No, it’s not. We’re just going to push this thing back as long as we want.’ The longer you play, I feel like experience and wisdom can take you a long way, especially at the quarterback position. There’s not much that we see on a weekly basis that we haven’t seen before. You kind of know the type of game it’s going to be, and as long as you can keep your physical traits at a level where you’re able to play at a high level, [and] combine that with where you are mentally with the game, with all the experience and wisdom. I think that just allows you to maintain your prime for longer and longer.”

  Through his army of consultants and specialists, Brees stays on the cutting edge of advances in nutrition, conditioning, and training. He practices the latest recovery techniques to keep his body in top form during the season.

  “We’re so much more knowledgeable now than we ever have been in regard to recovery and how to take care of your body and diet and all of those things,” he said. “I feel like each and every week should be better than the last week and each and every year should be better than before. It’s not just maintaining. It’s improving, constantly improving.”

  Brees and longtime trainer Todd Durkin have tweaked his workout regimen in recent years to address potential problem spots. He’s focused heavily on his core strength and added fascial stretch therapy to his routine.

  Physically, Brees is as fit and strong as ever, Durkin and House said. That’s why Durkin believes when Brees eventually hangs up his cleats it will be because he hits a wall mentally rather than physically. No one invests more into a Saints season than Brees. To play at an elite level at his age requires an extraordinary mental and physical expense. Teammates nearly half his age still marvel at his drive and mental stamina. His aging body requires more recovery work than ever. His free time during game weeks is limited to the times he flies to a road trip or coaches one of his kids’ flag football games. The football nerd in Brees loves the process, but the father, husband, and family man in him is conflicted by it.

  Brees has steadfastly maintained that he will continue to take his career one year at a time. He believes he can still compete at a high level. And while he thinks he can keep going, he also knows there will come a time when he simply wants to walk away.

  “There’s definitely a process that takes place when you think about this,” Brees said. “It’s not like you just wake up one day and decide you want to retire.… When I walk away, I don’t want it to be because I can’t play the game anymore because there’s 32 teams saying, ‘All right, see ya later.’ I want it to be on my own terms first. And I want it to be because I just want to spend more time with my family. I’m ready for that next chapter. When that time comes, I’ll know.”

  And when that time does arrive, Brees believes his relationship with Payton will change, as well. As close as Brees and Payton are on the field, they don’t get to see each other as often as they would like outside the Saints facility. But that has more to do with circumstance than preference.

  As the crow flies, they live only a mile apart from each other in the historic Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans. Yet, despite their close living proximity, Brees and Payton rarely see each other outside the Saints offices. Once they leave the training facility in suburban Metairie, their lives often go separate ways.

  The rare times Brees and Payton do socialize, it’s usually to squeeze in dinner or a concert or a round of golf. Brees and his family have visited Payton at his beach house in Florida. They also watched the College Football Playoff National Championship Game with Payton in his suite at the Superdome.

  But those times are fewer and farther between these days because of Brees’ growing family and myriad business interests. Plus, he spends his offseasons in Del Mar, California, where he has maintained a residence since his playing days with the Chargers.

  Payton also is on the go a lot, relaxing at his second home in the Florida panhandle or visiting his son, Connor, in Texas, or daughter, Meghan, in California.

  “It’s hard,” Brees said. “There’s not a lot of time. During the season, he lives here [at the office], and when I’m not here I’m with my family.

  “Once I’m done playing, there’ll be a different type of relationship between us. I think there’ll be even more of a friendship than there is now. Because right now there is that line of player/coach and I get that. Certainly, he’s a guy who changed my life by bringing me here, and there’s a genuine appreciation certainly that I have for him for believing in me and giving me this opportunity.”

  Dome-ination:

  2019 Indianapolis Colts

  During his three decades as an NFL player and coach, Frank Reich has been around some elite quarterbacks, among them Hall of Famer Jim Kelly and future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. But the performance he witnessed from Drew Brees on December 16, 2019, was something he’d never seen before and likely will never see again.

  The Indianapolis Colts came to New Orleans in a tailspin after losing five of their previous six games. They were still reeling from the stunning retirement of Andrew Luck in the preseason. What’s more, the Saints were coming off a tough loss to the San Francisco 49ers the previous week and would be honoring the 2009 Super Bowl team. So Reich knew his Colts (6–7) would need to play well to upset the Saints (10–3) in the Superdome on Monday Night Football. But he fully expected them to be competitive. After all, six of their seven losses had come by seven points or less.

  Brees opened the game by completing his first seven passes and staking the Saints to a 3–0 lead. He threw his first incomplete pass on the second play of the second quarter, when he rushed a throw in the right flat to avoid pressure and missed Latavius Murray on a checkdown. He wouldn’t throw another incompletion the rest of the game.

  With Brees dissecting the Colts defense with pinpoint accuracy, the Saints scored on their first six drives and took a shocking 34–0 lead into the fourth quarter. By then, the only suspense involved Brees’ pursuit of history. When the Saints took the field early in the fourth quarter, he needed one more completion to surpass Philip Rivers’ record for completion percentage in a game. A quick pass to Michael Thomas in the left flat secured the milestone, and Brees yielded to Teddy Bridgewater the rest of the way.

  Brees’ final numbers were staggering: 29-of-30, 307 yards, four touchdowns. One of those scoring passes—a five-yarder to Josh Hill in the third quarter—gave Brees 541 in his career, surpassing Peyton Manning in the NFL record books.

  “He was outstanding tonight,” Sean Payton said. “He was efficient, and it was impressive. As a play-caller, you begin to gain confidence and your [call] sheet looks a lot bigger when he’s playing like that.”

  It was a vintage Brees performance. He spread the ball to nine different receivers. Four different Saints caught touchdown passes. He wasn’t sacked and was hit just twice in 30 drop backs.

  “He has done that to a lot of defenses,” Reich said. “I didn’t realize it, but I looked up there at one time and he was 27-of-28 or something. When he gets like that, I don’t know anybody that can stop him. I mean 29-of-30, he has proven it year in and year out for a very long time. Even when you have a guy covered, he really isn’t covered. He always finds a hole. He can do that as well as anybody who has ever played the game.”

  For Brees, it was another epic performance on Monday Night Football. A year earlier, he broke Peyton Manning’s record for career passing yards against the Washington Redskins on Monday night. Now, a year later, he set the mark for all-time touchdown passes, while improving his record to 11–5 in Monday night home games at the Superdome.

  “It was special, everything about the night,” Brees said. “I’m not sure how we got here. It just, kind of, makes your whole life and career flash before your ey
es. I never thought that I would have had a chance to be a part of something like this; and, just looking at the entire journey, 19 years, 5 years in San Diego and 14 years here, all of the incredible teammates and coaches that I have had the chance to play with and for, [and] this team right here is very special. Of course, our fan base, the Who Dat Nation, everybody in the dome tonight, everybody watching tonight, loved ones, my family, my kids here, both of my college roommates, who are my best friends in the world, they were here with their kids. It was just an incredible night, incredible experience, (and an) incredible moment to be able to share that with so many people, because all of them are a big part of it.”

  26. A Tree Grows in Baton Rouge

  Drew Brees, Sean Payton, and Mickey Loomis watched LSU’s 47–25 rout of Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on January 13, 2020, from Payton’s luxury suite at the Superdome. At one point, Payton asked Loomis for his binoculars and trained them on the LSU coaches’ box.

  “I just want to make sure we’re looking at the same Joe Brady,” Payton quipped about the Saints’ former offensive quality control coach, who in one season became the hottest assistant coach in college football after transforming the LSU offense into a juggernaut.

  Brady wasn’t the only thing that looked familiar to Payton that night. The offense the LSU Tigers used to run roughshod over the Clemson Tigers and the rest of college football in 2019 was essentially Payton’s scheme, give or take a tweak here or there. The passing concepts were directly from Payton’s playbook, as was the offensive philosophy of utilizing quick timing throws by the quarterback and spreading the ball to all five skill-position players. There were some minor differences. Brady employed a read-option running game that he learned from Joe Moorhead when they worked together on the Penn State coaching staff. LSU also operated out of an empty backfield set 85 percent of the time, considerably more than the Saints did with Brees. But otherwise the offense was heavily influenced by Brady’s two years in New Orleans.