Saints QB Drew Brees reflects on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees reflects on today's Katrina anniversary

Published: Monday, August 29, 2011, 12:06 PM

By James Varney, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com Today marks the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the most profound disaster to hit New Orleans and much of the Gulf South since the Civil War. It also marks the event that helped quarterback Drew Brees think perhaps there was a larger meaning to him becoming the Saints signal caller.

Matt Rose/The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees receives his jersey from General Manger Mickey Loomis at his introductory press conference in 2006.

 

Brees reflected on that date Sunday night following the New Orleans Saints 40-20 preseason victory over the Raiders in Oakland.

"Six years post-Katrina," he said. "I think it's that day you really as a New Orleanian take time to recognize how far the city's come."

Not the least of those recovery indicators has been the Saints, for decades arguably the sorriest professional sports franchise in the United States that under Brees on-field leadership have gone to two NFC Championships and won Super Bowl XLIV in the last five years.

The story has been told often enough to ingrain it in Big Easy folklore: how the coach, seeking to impress the free agent quarterback, wound up taking a wrong turn and leading Brees and his wife, Brittany, into a storm ravaged neighborhood that Payton thought for sure would ruin any chance Brees would come to New Orleans. And how, instead, the Brees surveyed the catastrophe and saw a chance to accomplish something more - more lasting, more important - than just success on the gridiron.
Brees and the Saints' fairy-tale championship run burnished the city's and the team's place in the pantheon of American heroism. But the ruinous wake of a storm that killed nearly 2,000 people and caused at least $80 billion in damages isn't fixed in a mere six years, Brees reflected. Aug. 29, then, is a day whose significane lies as much in the future as the past, in his opinion.
"Obviously in so many ways New Orleans has come back better - while in one moment you say, 'look how far we've come,' you also have to say, 'what's still left to do?,'" Brees said. "And I think that's definitely motivation for all of us just to continue on. It's gone by fast. That's where you just have to say, 'life does go by fast. And so let's take advantage of every opportunity we have and improve our place to live.'"