Celebrated quarterback Drew Brees overcame a torn shoulder to land a $100-million contract in 2012 and became the highest-paid player in the American NFL.



When the 2012/13 American football season kicked off on September 5, Drew Brees, 33, star quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, stepped onto the field as the highest-paid player in the NFL thanks to a five-year, $100 million contract with his club.

Although America's most prized player didn't grow up with the size and strength typical of an NFL quarterback, he never let that stop him from chasing his dreams. A star player in high school in Texas, talent scouts said he was too short to play for the big-name colleges, so he wound up at the less fancied Purdue University in Indiana. He went on to torch their record books and become a second-round draft pick for the San Diego Chargers in 2001.

However, when Brees tore the rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder in the final game of the 2005 season, the Chargers basically left him for dead. Only the New Orleans Saints - the perpetual down-and-outers rumoured to be leaving town in the aftermath of the devastating Hurrican Katrina - were willing to take a chance on him.

A marriage of misfits was made, and it turned out to be one for the ages. Brees not only bounced back from tthe injury to play his best football yet - surpassing the NFL passing-yards record set in 1984 by another gridiron great, Dan Marino - but elevated the team beyond any status it had ever enjoyed, culminating in New Orleans' first-ever Super Bowl win in 2010 and the game's Most Valuable Player award for himself.

Despite Brees' success and that celebrated $100 million deal - $40 million of it is to be paid in the first year - there are those who doubt the $100-million man. For start, he no longer has Sean Payton, the Saints' head coach, as his mentor. In March, Payton, 48, was suspended from the NFL for allegedly instituting a "bounty" program that rewarded his team members for deliberately injuring opposing players to knock them out of the game.

One thing is for sure: Brees isn't among the doubters. "I always tell myself, 'This adversity is here for a reason'," he says, "Maybe I've never had to handle something like this before, but I'm going to learn a lot from it."



Drew Brees's Core Workout

For the past nine years, Brees has been trained in the off-season under trainer Todd Durkin at the Fitness Quest 10 gym in San Diego. High performance in any sport is dependent upon core strenght - here is a six-exercise core circuit performed with little to no rest between exercises to elevate your heart rate. This is only an excerpt of Durkin's two-hour full-body program, but it's a valuable one.


Directions: Do the circuit three times. Don't rest between exercises and only for one minutet between circuits.


EXERCISE / REPS

TRX plank to push-up* / 20
Side plank with hip-up / 20
TRX rip trainer swing** / 10 each side
Physio ball plank (circle, figure 8 and saw)*** / 30 seconds each
Medicine ball one-arm pass against wall / 20 each side
Hyperextension with med ball throw at trampoline**** / 5 each arm

* With your feet in the stirrups of a TRX, hold a plank 10 seconds on your elbows, then transition to your hands to do a push-up. Return to the plank position and repeat.

** Using a TRX rip trainer (or long handle attachment) on a weight stack, swing the handle away from the anchor point with your left hand on top. Switch hands each rep.

*** Hold a plank with both elbows on a Swiss ball, then move the ball in circles, figure eights and saws (back and forth).

**** Hold a light medicine ball in one arm while on a back extension bench. At the top of each rep, throw the ball at an angled trampoline and catch it on the rebound (or use a partner).

Dr james andrews did Matthew Staffords shoulder surgery

Stafford had serious problems with his shoulder getting hit when he came out of college and injured the same shoulder like 3 times until the doctor sorted it