Rating: (0 votes - average)

Brees received the award at an Athletes in Action breakfast attended by an estimated 2,400 people, and at the end of a ceremony in which several Hall of Famers participated. One highlight of the event, hosted by ESPN commentator Chris Mortensen, was a roundtable recollection of the 1967 NFL Championship, famously known as 'the Ice Bowl,' in which the Green Bay Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys.

Brees said he was humbled by the award and its list of past recipients tha includes Steve Largent, Jackie Slater, Darren Woodson, Warrick Dunn, Kurt Warner, Anthony Munoz, Reggie White and others.

"Playing in the NFL is really a platform to make a difference in a lot of lives, especially young people," Brees said. "We are all role models whether we like it or not, and that's a role I've always tried to embrace."
Brees said he got word he had won during a Saints team meeting at which he had his cell phone, an item generally forbidden in that setting. He checked who was calling to make sure it wasn't his wife, Brittany, and some sort of crisis.

"So I looked and said to myself, 'it's Bart Starr!'" Brees recalled. "I know I'm not supposed to answer it, but it's Bart Starr so I kind of motioned to our trainer, Scottie Patton and showed him it was Bart Starr and he nodded as if to say, 'OK, we'll let that one pass.'"

But other players looked askance at him, the quarterback and leader of the Saints, for breaking the rules until Patton told the room, "It's Bart Starr."
"And everyone nodded as if to say, 'oh, well that's OK then," Brees said.
Brees also spoke to the packed room at the Gaylord Texan resort about not playing tackle football until he was in high school and battling his way up the depth chart after starting as the fourth string quarterback, and about making a total fool of himself when he first approached Brittany on the Purdue campus.

OldMaid

Good guys do finish first.

QBREES9

and they win Super Bowls. Well said Old maid well said