Drew Brees and The City of New Orleans

By Eric Margolin

 40-year-old quarterbacks are rare in the NFL. Good 40-year-old NFL quarterbacks are even rarer. And as we found out this weekend good, durable, 40-year-old quarterbacks are the rarest of all. In a game against the Rams, Drew Brees tore a ligament in his throwing thumb that will require surgery and keep him out for a minimum of six weeks. It will be Brees’ second missed game since entering the NFL in 2001. Most of you aren’t New Orleanians and are probably wondering why you should care. “NFL players get injured all the time.” “It’s a violent game.” “At least you had a future hall of fame QB in his prime.” But the relationship between Drew Brees and the city of New Orleans is one that runs much deeper than football.

Most of you probably know about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it left in its aftermath. To summarize, the 4th most intense hurricane to ever make landfall in the contiguous US killed at least 1200 people and flooded 80% of the city of New Orleans in August 2005. The Superdome went from a football arena to a temporary shelter overnight. Journalists wrote that the city shouldn’t be rebuilt. The entire state of Louisiana was in chaos. 

That year the Saints played all their home games in San Antonio and Baton Rouge. Media outlets reported that the team would be relocated to San Antonio and the disastrous season ended with a 3-13 record and the firing of coach Jim Haslett.  


At the same time on the other side of the country, Drew Brees, the San Diego Chargers starting quarterback, tore his labrum and rotator cuff, possibly ending his football career altogether. After the Chargers refused to offer Brees the contract he wanted, he chose to sign with the second worst team in the NFL at a time when their stadium still had a massive hole in the roof. Brees chose us when no one else did. 

That decision rewrote the history of the Saints, Brees, and the city of New Orleans. In 2006, Brees’ first season as a Saint, the Superdome was sold out for the first time in the team’s history, the Saints went to the NFC championship game for the first time ever, and Brees was named first team All-Pro. But Brees and the Saints gave the city something to root for, something to hold on to, for the first time since Katrina. That year Brees also won the Walter Payton Man of the Year award for his efforts to rebuild New Orleans. Brees’ comeback from injury paralleled New Orleans’ rebirth after Katrina, inevitably linking the two. 


To those of us from southeast Louisiana, the Saints aren’t just a football team. In 2017, the rate of shootings in New Orleans doubled when the Saints weren’t playing. Even when they went with bags on their heads, Saints fans always showed up to games. Despite residents dealing with the cost of rebuilding an entire city, the Saints have sold out season tickets every year of Brees’ tenure. 

Football in New Orleans is more like a religion than a sport, and while every player is a Saint, there is only one Bresus. He is the face of our franchise. He stood up for the city when no one else would. He wanted to be in New Orleans when others wanted to let it drown. He brought the city its first Super Bowl. He and his family live in the city instead of the suburbs. His charity rebuilds academic and athletic facilities for underprivileged and intellectually disabled children. He built homes with Habitat for Humanity after Katrina. Drew Brees has taught us all to be resilient, hardworking, and to never give up. He may have been born in Texas and gone to Purdue, but Brees is a New Orleanian through and through. 

All of this is to say that the city of New Orleans and New Orleanians everywhere are going to have a hard six weeks. If you see mad Saints fans on social media or think that we’re being ungrateful for our time with one of the best quarterbacks to play the game, remember that this injury is more than a “boo-boo on a football man.” It demonstrates the fragility of a Saint and brings to mind the vulnerability of a city. This could be the beginning of the end of a relationship that has brought a great American city through its darkest time and we are scared.

UPDATE: 
Brees' surgery is scheduled for today (9/18) in Los Angeles. Dr. Steven Shin will be performing the procedure which is expected to sideline Brees for 6-8 weeks. 
Back home in Louisiana, someone power washed some interesting art onto the roof of the Superdome. 

Images courtesy of the following:
​NPR
Canal Street Chronicle
Arizona Daily Star
​The Daily Dolphin
Uproxx
WWL-TV