
That being said, a below average day for Brees equates to a tolerable game by far for most other quarterbacks in the league. With time running out in the regular season & a potential playoff birth on the line, Brees overcame 2 horrible 4th quarter passes, both of which were intercepted by Falcons defensive ends (Chauncy Davis returned the 1st 26 yards for a touchdown, John Abraham snatched the 2nd pick right out of mid-air but was luckily tackled by Brees, otherwise that would have been returned for 6 points as well).

In a hostile environment where the Falcons had not lost a home game since 2009, Brees marched the Saints down the field with a time consuming, 13-play drive which ate up 6 minutes & 37 seconds of clock - leaving the Falcons little time to respond. The Falcons were eventually unable to do so & the Saints came away with a crucial victory which seemingly announced to the league that the Saints were still relevant, indeed.

Most fans of the sport are well aware of the rejuvenation Brees & the Saints provided for New Orleans residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - initially, I chalked Brees' humility & leadership up to the standard public relation protocols, often taken by organizations such as the NFL in response to tragic events such as Katrina, but his continued involvement in the community (even today) seems genuine & I definitely respect that.

The 2 seasons that preceded his arrival in the Buyou were tumultuous campaigns to say the least. The San Diego Chargers who drafted Brees in 2001, benched him repeatedly & then acquired Phillip Rivers in 2004, following a catastrophic shoulder injury to Brees that many feared he wouldn’t fully recover from. The deal for the rights to Rivers in the 2004 NFL Draft essentially cemented the idea that Bress was NOT the QB they wanted to lead their team, still, he had quite the successful lame-duck season (throwing for over 3,500 yards & 27 TDs) during his final year in San Diego.
Brees continued to excel & threw for more than 4,400 yards each of his 1st 3 seasons with the Saints in a still recovering city, all the while pledging full support to the same community that accepted him with open arms, but the tough times were not yet done for Brees In August of 2009, his estranged mother died (her death was eventually ruled a suicide), even with this, he managed to lead the Saints on a tear through the league, which culminated with the franchise’s 1st Super Bowl win. Fittingly, it appeared that at this point the residents of the city were on their way back up as well. In the article honoring Brees as Sportsman of the year, he told SI's Tim Layden that "People in New Orleans needed someone to care about them & it was the 1 place that cared about me."
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