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New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees looking ahead to great things next season
By Mike Triplett, The Times-Picayune


New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is back in New Orleans and ready to get back to business after a whirlwind two-month "offseason" that has included a USO Tour to the Middle East, a round of golf with Jack Nicklaus, the NFL Players Association meetings in Hawaii, some commercial shoots, corporate and charitable engagements and as much down time as he could get with family and friends scattered around the country.

Oh, and he learned that his family will be growing.
Brees revealed that he and his wife, Brittany, are expecting their second child in October -- a little brother or sister for 15-month-old son Baylen, who became immortalized as a Saints mascot during the Super Bowl postgame celebration.
"We're very excited, " said Brees, adding that fatherhood has been an "awesome" experience.
This weekend, Brees will host his second annual Amazing Race competition to raise money for the Brees Dream Foundation. Teams of four will compete in physical and mental challenges, following clues throughout the French Quarter in a scavenger hunt modeled after the TV show, "The Amazing Race" and the book and movie, "The Da Vinci Code." Brees will serve as one of the characters who provide clues along the way.
Then on Monday, the Super Bowl MVP will report to the Saints' practice facility with the rest of his teammates for the start of the team's offseason conditioning program.
Brees said he can't believe it's already time to get ready for the 2010 season, but he insisted he's "extremely excited" about it.
"I've been talking to a lot of guys, and I know they've been working out for the last month and getting ready and knowing the challenge that's ahead of us, and knowing these last two and a half months have gone by pretty fast, " Brees said. "But I had an opportunity to do a lot of things, I've had some good family time. And I'm excited to get back to the structure and get back to doing all the little things to accomplish all of our goals."
Brees said he's been thinking a lot about what it will take for the Saints to combat the threat of a dropoff after their championship season. Recent history has proven that it's extremely difficult to recapture that magic. In the past 11 years, only one Super Bowl champion has repeated (the 2004 Patriots). None of the other 10 teams even made it back to a conference championship game, and five missed the playoffs.
"I've been giving it a lot of thought, " Brees said."Obviously (Coach Sean Payton) has, a lot of us have. I think certainly human nature is when you experience that kind of success, especially in this line of work where what you hope you'll get out of your career is that you can just get one Super Bowl. I think there's a tendency to relax and make you feel like you've kind of arrived. Maybe the motivation isn't the same. So it takes a special group of guys to overcome that tendency, to stay motivated, to stay humble.
"Yes, it was a rare thing that we accomplished, and it was something very special. But we have a window of opportunity here to become -- I don't want to throw the word dynasty around, but we have an opportunity to do something very special and unusual and rare. We have a chance to repeat and have a chance to rattle off a few of these in the next few years. . . . But you understand, too, that the most important thing is that right now there are 32 teams that feel like this year is going to be their year, and they have that excitement and enthusiasm. And every team is looking at us on their schedule with a bulls eye on the New Orleans Saints."
He's planning to fly with the Thunderbirds in Shreveport next weekend, mixing his passion for the military with his passion for excitement. And he has several charitable events planned for his Brees foundation, which is beginning a major project with The American Cancer Society's Patrick F. Taylor Hope Lodge.
He said he has also begun to research ways that he can use his high-profile platform to help curb the outbreak of violence in New Orleans.
Brees said he was "really impressed and taken aback" by the overwhelming response he received earlier this week when he posted a spontaneous emotional message on his twitter account, which read:
"I wish people in New Orleans would stop killing each other. There is too much love in this city for all that violence. How can we stop it?"
"Really, it's one of those things you type, and of course it's what you're feeling, and it's from the heart, " Brees said. "But I think I was kind of shocked by how many people were listening, I guess, and feel the same way and want to do something, too. ... It's a very deep issue. It's not just a simple problem. But I think the biggest thing for me is Brittany and I love New Orleans so much, and we want people outside of the city to see what we see. And unfortunately, so much attention is brought to New Orleans in a negative way by that problem."
Brees said that a big focus of his foundation has been on education and rebuilding schools and parks and playgrounds and athletic fields "" things that will give kids an opportunity to grow up and be successful and give them confidence, which can help steer some of them away from a life of crime. But he said he's interested in researching other ways he can try to get involved.
"It's unfortunate that while New Orleans has so many great things in its culture and its charm and the passion of the people who love the city so much and want others to love the city, that that's kind of the one glaring thing, " Brees said. "I play football, I'm not a politician. But if anything I'm just a concerned citizen who also recognizes that I have a platform as a professional athlete and as a quarterback of this football team and as someone who cares about this city and has a foundation that is trying to give back as much as we can to this city."

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