Drew Brees - The Super Optimist and a Genuine Hero
Last updated 01/11/2008 12:46:39
Drew Brees The Super Optimist and a Genuine Hero
Wembley Stadium is used to hosting sporting superstars but on Sunday October 26 they had the privilege of entertaining a genuine sporting saint when Drew Brees led New Orleans Saints to victory against his former team San Diego Chargers in a sell out NFL game.
Over the years I have met and interviewed a few of those special people from sport, the likes of Muhammad Ali , Pele, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Viv Richards, Dame Kelly Holmes, Sir Steve Redgrave and a handful of others but few have moved me as much as the 29 year old All American quarterback.
To give you an idea of the sort of guy he is when he moved from San Diego he had the final choice between Miami Dolphins, offering a life of luxury and comfort, or New Orleans Saints who, less than six months earlier, had been razed to the ground by the ferocious Hurricane Katrina which battered this famous city until the floodwalls and levees collapsed and flooded 80% of the city, killing more than 1,500 people.
The Louisiana Superdome suddenly became the home to thousands of displaced residents under its battered roof.
Where would you have picked? Miami, by the azure sea on better than Premiership wages, or the flooded community by the side of the fearsome Mississippi River. No choice!
Brees told me: "I came in just after it happened and had no preconceived ideas. At that time not much had been done. The city had been devastated, about 80 or 90 per cent of it had been flooded and not even half the population was back. I looked around and it was as though a bomb had gone off only yesterday.
"There I was with this choice of New Orleans or Miami and I picked New Orleans because I saw opportunity not devastation, an opportunity to help rebuild an organisation, rebuild a community and a region and also, for me, it was almost like rebuilding my career after five years at San Diego where I had a major shoulder injury.
"I felt like it was a calling for me, something that doesn't come along for most people in their life time.
"The decision was immediate. It would have been very easy to have said I want no part of this when I was being shown around the city but I knew this was for me even though it was going to be a big challenge. It was and it still is a never ending challenge.
"It is a process; you are talking about rebuilding a city of half a million people, one of the most unique city's in the world.
"I had been to New Orleans a couple of times before I signed but when I came down to talk to them I had the chance to go round to see where people lived, or should I say where people used to live! The Saints were totally honest, they showed me everything and said this is the situation you are coming into, huge parts of the city are devastated and they told me I could be part of the rebuilding. There were places to live, places to go out to eat, but they wanted to show me reality. I appreciated them trying not to hide anything from me.