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New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is officially the NFL's passing king.

During the second quarter of Monday's game against Washington, Brees broke Peyton Manning's record for most career passing yards on a 62-yard touchdown pass to rookie wide receiver Tre'Quan Smith.

It was a fitting play for Brees to break the record as his deep passes have been a staple of the Saints offense since he arrived in 2006, and the play produced an uproar from the crowd at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Manning, who retired after the 2015 season, finished his 17-year career with 71,940 passing yards. Brees, now in his 18th season, entered Monday's game 200 yards behind the record, and he broke it on the first play of a drive in which he needed just 35 yards to surpass Manning.



After Brees broke the record, he handed the ball to Pro Football Hall of Fame President David Baker, who was wearing white gloves. Then, Brees kissed his daughter, Rylen, his wife, Brittany, and hugged his three sons, Baylen, Callen and Bowen.

Shortly after the initial celebratory moment, the Superdome video boards showed a video tribute from Manning, which featured the New Orleans native chopping tomatoes. Manning first joked about still holding the NFL's touchdown record and then went on to say the 1,000 days in which he held the yardage record were the best days of his life.

The play on which Brees broke the record gave the Saints a 26-6 lead over Washington with 2:36 remaining in the second quarter.

Brees was also 98 yards behind Brett Favre entering the game, but Brees passed Favre in the earlier second quarter on a 6-yard pass to running back Alvin Kamara.

As the Saints prepared last week for this game, players tried to keep the focus on Washington. A few players, including wide receivers Michael Thomas and Cameron Meredith, said they hoped to catch the record-breaking pass, but like everyone else, they didn't want to talk too much about the record.

Even coach Sean Payton said Saturday that he hadn't talked about the record with Brees.



"I think he's got a great way of compartmentalizing things and focusing on playing well and winning," Payton said. "Like most accomplishments, certainly this one, I'm sure he'll appreciate it as time goes by and yet you'd have to ask him because we really haven't talked about it oddly enough."
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QBREES9

Thank You A.J. Smith where ever you are. You are no John Butler.

jeanpierre

And yet the announcers were still putting quantitatives on it like Best Quarterback Ever...Under 6' 1"...

And then there was this...

saintfan

I watched some of that. Haters gonna hate, but I was surprised at what they were doing. It was disgusting.

WillMacKenzie

That game started Jay Gruden’s retirement ceremony. WOW

K Major

Well done Drew Brees... well done.

SmashMouth

SmashMouth

SmashMouth

SmashMouth