Why Drew Brees is a Purdue Hero

This isn't even my best reason

Last night Drew Brees led the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl win. During the game, there were plenty of conflicted people at Purdue, which is dominated by annoying Colts fans. I don't remember exactly why I hate the Colts and their fans so much...I feel like something happened a few years ago, but I can't remember what it was....oh well.

Anyways, Brees had a ridiculous performance, going 32-39 and tying the Super Bowl record for most completions in a game. He only tied this mark because for some reason two point conversions don't count for official statistics, so one of the key plays of the game wasn't allowed to help Saint Brees beat out dumbass Brady. Brees also outplayed the media's favorite QB, Peyton Manning, who threw one giant pick to Brees' none.

On a side note, a lot was made before the game of where Manning ranks among the all time great QB's. After this loss he is 9-9 in the post season with one title. Brees is 5-1 with one title and a pretty remarkable set of regular season statistics as well. I know Brees is still a few years from the debate of all time QB's, but I'm not sure why this hasn't at least been mentioned in the hours of post game coverage I've watched since the game ended.

More than a few of my friends have wondered why Drew Brees is such an icon to Purdue fans. So much so that die hard Colts' fans were sort of ok with losing because it was to him. This goes beyond just that he's a talented Purdue alum, and in the immortal words of Will Smith, "I'd like to take a minute just to sit right here and tell you," why Drew Brees is pretty amazing.

Reason 1: Love for the under-appreciated

In Indiana, we're not big fans of the "powerhouse" colleges. The Texas schools and Florida schools annoy us. Drew Brees is from Texas. He was 28-0-1 in his high school career. The Texas schools, however, didn't want Drew Brees. He was too small (only 6' 0") and had hurt his knee towards the end of his senior year. Having been scorned by those schools, he looked north to the state of Indiana and Joe Tiller. Within only a few years he would prove everyone in Texas wrong by being a Heisman finalist and leading the once downtrodden Purdue football program to the Rose Bowl.

Reason 2: He gives back to Purdue like crazy

After four years of being Purdue's favorite athlete, Drew Brees was drafted by the San Diego Chargers. To people in Indiana, this is about as far away as you can get. People at Purdue go muddin' and assume everyone in California is Paris Hilton or some such person. Brees, however, defied the stereotypes and never forgot Purdue as the place that gave him a chance when others were passing on him. He still showed up in local commercials and PEFCU commercials. Still made appearances on gamedays when he could, and always talked about Purdue with pride in his interviews.

When he first went to the Saints, he gave $2 million to Purdue to create the Drew and Brittany Brees Student-Athlete Academic Center. As much as I'm not a fan of buildings that I'm not allowed to go into, it's still pretty cool that he would give that much money and also that he knows education is a priority because, let's face it, not many members of Purdue's football team will be playing on Sundays.

Even right up to the Super Bowl, Drew helped his school. Knowing that Media Day was also National College Signing Day and that he was in Purdue's most coveted recruiting state, Drew sent a little sales pitch to all of those prospective college athletes. Even though it was on signing day, so it probably had little real impact on that day's decisions, it was still pretty freaking cool of him.

Reason 3: He's just a real good guy

The only part of the Super Bowl coverage that ESPN and company got right was following the impact of Drew Brees, not just on the city of New Orleans, but on individuals that he has met. In 2003, Brees set up the Brees Dream Foundation, which pretty much donates time and effort to every cause possible. He has worked for cancer research, rebuilding New Orleans, and charitable causes in both San Diego and West Lafayette. According to their website, they have raised and donated over $4.5 million. I know that most celebrities and athletes do some charity work throughout their careers, but Brees has always been heavily involved in these efforts. On a more personal level, watch this video about Brees with cancer patient Micah Roshell. When this was shown on NFL Live before the game, I guarantee you that every testosterone fueled man pretended like he had something in his eye. Stupid ESPN.

Finally think of all the controversy and scandal in the sports world these days. Tiger Woods is a sex addict, Michael Vick dog fighting, Plaxico Burress carrying a loaded gun in his sweat pants. If you google "Drew Brees controversy", you get results like "no QB controversy in New Orleans". When the game ended, all thoughts were on partying in New Orleans and drunken debauchery. Then came the single best image from that game:

Yeah...can't really argue with that.

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to the inaugural post in this blog. I'm just going to use this to throw some general feelings and thoughts up as background for future posts. As you may have read, I'm originally from Chicago. I am the complete stereotype of a Chicago fan. I believe the city is the greatest in the world. That being said, I am well aware that we currently have a very flawed set of pro sports teams. I am a huge Blackhawks and Bears fan, I make sure to follow the Bulls and watch games when I can, and I am a White Sox fan (I'm well aware that this isolates me from many Chicagoan friends of mine, but they both suck so I won't be writing about them for a while). As a final note, I graduated last Spring from Purdue University and so I will comment on their sports when I can. The football team is comically bad right now, but you can expect more updates once the basketball season starts. With that out of the way, let's jump right into the teams I follow.

BLACKHAWKS
(Currently 3-1-1 and in 6th in the West)

I have a prediction this year that either the Bears or Hawks will win their respective championships. I base this on the fact that Chicago sports enjoy taunting me whenever they can. My only real evidence of this is that I cheered for nothing but mediocre teams through my teen years. The Bulls had just lost Jordan, the Hawks were clinging to their playoff appearance streak, and the Sox were forgettable at best. In Fall of 2005, I decided to leave Chicago and head off to Central Indiana to go to Purdue. I was still surrounded by a solid number of Bears fans and even enjoyed the company of some Hawk and Bulls fans. At this point, the White Sox decided to go ahead and win the World Series. Don't get me wrong, I love that year and had a blast, but when they clinched the championship, I screamed and darted into the hallway in Owen to find one other excited person the length of the hallway away. I was hardly able to celebrate. Back to the present, I have now moved to where I have no Bears or Hawks fans around. In fact, the Bears are division rivals with the Vikings. Since God loves making me celebrate alone, I have confidence that this will be the year! I think the Hawks definitely have the better chance and I'll dive into that now.

Last year the Blackhawks made a miraculous run into the post season that few, if any, truly expected. Entering this year, they had a ton of question marks. They lost Martin Havlat and Nikolai Khabibulan, their leading point scorer and starting goalie. They added Marian Hossa to compensate for the lack of scoring, but he will be out until late November. They added nobody to replace Khabibulan and are left with a $7 million liability in Huet. They have huge financial decisions hovering ahead and one star player decided to punch out a cab driver. All of that being said, this team is the most entertaining team in hockey to watch.

I truly believe that Huet will cost us some games, but that he will be solid enough. It will be up to the Hawks' defense to keep him out of trouble as much as possible. That defense, however, is stepping up big time thanks to John Madden, who was also added this offseason. The offense will not be an issue. The Hawks are already putting up big numbers and that's with Hossa on the bench. After watching what they did against Calgary (look for a post about that game in the near future), the sky is the limit for this team. For the sake of time, I will move on now to the other Chicago teams, but there will be plenty more written about the Hawks before I lose interest in this blog.

Da Bears

The Bears are a curious team this year to say the least. The aquisition of Jay Cutler and the fact that Kyle Orton is undefeated right now make it seem like that deal was a good one for both teams. Kyle Orton is able to make smart use of the receiving talent in Denver, while Cutler has been good at force feeding the Bears receiving corp and helping to develop them into legitimate threats. This week will be a huge test for the Bears in a Sunday night matchup with Atlanta so look for a more elaborate post after that game.

Bulls

The Bulls this year will be fun to watch. I expect that they will do similar to last year in getting in the lower end of the playoffs and looking decent in the first round, but ultimately losing. This team is going to be a huge player in the bidding war for Dwayne Wade. They will hope that LeBron will steam the hype and they can create a hometown backcourt of Rose and Wade. If they want a chance at this, they cannot do poorly this year. They need to look like a team that is one or two pieces away from being a legitimate contender and I am really hoping they will do this. I am a big Bulls fan and am really hoping they will give me a reason to hope soon. I will be cheering for decency this season, though. One team, one dream, play round one.

Boilers



I have been to three Purdue games and will be going to a fourth this weekend. I watched them beat Toledo, lose to Notre Dame in a heartbreaking but not entirely unexpected game, and lose at Minnesota. It is fun to be a fan of the enemy when you have no hope because you don't really get heckled. I know Minnesota is supposed to be full of nice people, but I think it was more pity than kindness that lead to their general silence towards us.
The fun with this team is figuring out how they will blow the game in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. They will inevitably jump out to a lead and then make a late charge in the 4th, but the amazing number of turnovers, a blocked field goal, tired defenses, and awful punting are all ingredients in the comedy routine that is Purdue football.

In Conclusion

This upcoming year I will be posting mostly about these teams (plus Purdue basketball and any offseason moves made by baseball teams). From now on, I promise posts will be a little more focused, but I feel like this has been a good introduction to me. Pretty unorganized and all over the place. I will be putting up posts in the next few days on attending the Twins/Tigers tie break game, the Hawks comeback against Calgary, the evolution of Patrick "20 cent" Kane, and whatever hilarity ensues on Saturday as Purdue takes on Ohio State. Please come back...I can't let Kelly Twomey be better than me at this.