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Drew Brees is the 'mystery' man who prayed at this New Orleans church early each morning

BY PETER FINNEY JR. | Editor-in-chief, The Clarion Herald PUBLISHED FEB 8, 2021 AT 9:46 AM | UPDATED FEB 8, 2021 AT 11:16 AM

Joe Delery is a lifelong Catholic and has spent a career with the New Orleans Police Department using his 6-foot-3 frame to protect and serve with the best of them, intuitively knowing how to defuse a tense standoff with a disarming gift of gab.

When Joe was a lanky freshman at De La Salle High School in 1972, he went out for the Cavaliers’ JV football team, in part because of a backhanded comment he had received from a teacher at Christian Brothers School, Don Rowan, an old football coach from New Iberia.

“He was one of my greatest teachers, but he made a comment one day like, ‘Delery, you could never play football,’” Joe recalled. “And so when I graduated from Christian Brothers and got to De La Salle, I was like, ‘I’m going out for the football team. I’m going to prove Don Rowan wrong.’”

And?

“Don was right,” Joe laughed. “My heart definitely was not into the game. It was more into hunting and fishing.”

One of the memories seared into Joe’s memory about his foray into football came in the fall of 1972, when he and a few other promising freshmen got battlefield promotions from the JV to the varsity team.

In the midst of “one of the most bizarre seasons ever,” Joe remembers his blooper as if it were captured in 70mm Technicolor by NFL Films.

“I was the worst, but it was not just me – it was me and another guy,” Joe said. “I was an offensive lineman and so was he, and we had the play so confused. We doubled around, and our quarterback got sandwiched in between the two of us. I tackled my own quarterback. The other team was looking at us like, ‘We don’t even have to get on the field. These guys are taking care of things by themselves.’ That was the worst football season ever.”

For many years, Joe has attended the daily 7 a.m. Mass at St. Rita Church in New Orleans, usually getting there just after the church is opened for prayer. It’s his quiet time.

“I get there typically about a half-hour before Mass and watch everybody come in, and also to tell everybody ‘good morning,’” Joe said. “I’ve kind of thought that that was my job, my ministry, like the school teacher opening up the school for the kids. It’s also my way of actually starting my day on a really great high note, telling everyone ‘good morning.’ No matter how bad the day before was, it was a really great way to start the day.”

Imagine Joe’s surprise several years ago when he saw a young adult – probably in his early 30s, he guessed, according to his NOPD-honed observation powers – dressed casually in shorts and sneakers, coming into the church just about every morning. The man always arrived around 6:30 a.m., walked through the front door and took his seat in the back pew, just to the right of the main aisle.

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