In the 100-year history of the NFL, no quarterback has ever thrown a perfect game.
Drew Brees almost did it Monday night – in the 273rd game of a career that has nearly spanned two decades.
A month shy of his 41st birthday, the Saints’ star quarterback came closer to achieving perfection than anyone in the history of the sport during an epic 34-7 rout of the Indianapolis Colts. Brees’ 29-of-30, 307-yard, four-touchdown masterpiece was a performance for the ages, an inspiration for 40-somethings everywhere. That it occurred on a primetime stage before a sellout home crowd that included scores of his Super Bowl XLIV championship teammates made the evening all the more memorable.
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“It was special, everything about the night,” Brees said.
The career touchdown passing record is a significant achievement, a testament to Brees’ enduring talent and incomparable drive. Only the truly great ones play this long at this elite level. Brees is chiseling his image on the Mount Rushmore of all-time great NFL passers. It’s impossible to say who is truly the greatest, but Brees is certainly making a strong case for himself with each passing record.
But the night was less about the touchdown record than it was about the unprecedented performance he authored in setting it. Brees looked like the 30-year-old, longer-haired version of himself while carving up the helpless Colts secondary at the Superdome.
“That’s a blessing for him, but he’s not done,” receiver Michael Thomas said of the record. “There is so much more that he can do.”
Let’s hope the masterpiece, which comes on the heels of a 349-yard, five-touchdown torching of the San Francisco 49ers, quashes once and for all the foolish conjecture about his advancing age and (perceived) declining physical ability.
Talk about a waste of time — and brain cells.
With Brees, it’s never been about the big arm. Or the blinding speed. Or the exit velocity of his passes.
Make no mistake, Brees is a prodigious athlete. His nimble footwork and innate pocket awareness were on full display against the Colts. But all NFL players have talent and superior athleticism. What separates the great from the good are the intangibles. And Brees’ work ethic, preparation, discipline and leadership skills have transformed him from a great player to a future Hall of Famer and raised the standard for every player, coach and staff member in the Saints organization. Along with his talent, they’vecarried him to places he never dreamed he’d be when he entered the league as an overlooked second-round draft pick in 2001.
“I feel like I keep taking him for granted,” Saints defensive end Cam Jordan said. “… He’s unbelievable.”
The Colts would certainly agree. As the Monday night massacre proceeded, they were reduced to innocent bystanders, mere extras in Brees’ historic performance. Brees made it look so easy at times the game seemed more like a glorified 7-on-7 drill. His lone incompletion came on one of his easiest throws of the night, a short pass in the right flat to a wide-open Latavius Murray on the third play of the second quarter. He finished the final three quarters by completing his final 22 passes in a row.
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“He has done that to a lot of defenses,” said Colts coach Frank Reich, a former quarterback who played with Hall of Famer Jim Kelly in his 13-year playing career. “When he gets like that, I don’t know anybody that can stop him.”
Colts All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard said he grew up watching Brees as akid in rural South Carolina before embarking on a successful playing career at Lake View High School and South Carolina State University. He knew the Colts had a challenge on their hands in trying to slow him down, especially at home on the big stage.
“I knew the type of quarterback he was, but to see it in person, it was something different,” Leonard said.
Brees awoke Tuesday morning in a familiar place. He leads the NFL in completion percentage (75.8 percent) and passer efficiency rating (115.3). The former would establish a new NFL record, one that he has set and broken four previous times in his career. The latter is just off his career high and would rank as the seventh best in NFL history if the season ended today.
He’s played his best two games in the past two weeks and, like his team, appears to be peaking at just the right time. If the Brees-led offense continues to play this efficiently, the Saints will enter the postseason as the favorites to win the NFC Championship Game and advance to Super Bowl LIV.
And if he wins another Lombardi Trophy to join his pal Tom Brady as the oldest quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl, don’t expect him to hang up his cleats anytime soon. Brees has more football left in him. Much more.
“There’s going to be a day where we all ride off into the sunset, but it’s not now,” Payton said.
In fact, Brees’ longtime mentor and passing coach, Tom House, told me this summer that Brees wants to play into his mid-40s. And this season he’s given us no reason to believe he won’t. Despite missing five games with the first significant injury of his Saints tenure, he’s playing better than ever.
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“He’s a Renaissance man,” House said. “He’s special, not just in football, but he’s also special in the big picture, in life, in business, family and faith. What happens with a lot of elite athletes, they get to a certain level of expertise and they stop learning. Drew and Nolan (Ryan), 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 actually gets better every day. He was better this summer than he’s ever been for me. All his checkpoints, he’s a better quarterback this year than he was last year.”
Yes, Brees is getting older. Yes, some of the analytics say his fastball isn’t what it used to be. But in his 19th NFL season, he’s still going strong. In fact, amazingly, improbably he appears to be getting better. He’s breaking all-time records and along the way, the wills of his opponents, many of them nearly half his age.
Father Time might be undefeated with the rest of us mortals, but Drew Brees is kicking his ass.
(Photo: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
