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Drew Brees took a “break” even from NBC Sports when his trainer, Todd Durkin, posted a video of the former Saints quarterback pushing a sled with weights. However, in the end, Brees was simply waiting until his birthday to announce his retirement from football.
Brees stepped down as an NFL officer on Sunday, 15 years before the day he initially signed with the Saints as a free agent.
On Wednesday, NBC Sports held a 30-minute press conference with Brees, who will work as an NFL analyst at Football Night in America and as a game analyst for Notre Dame football.
“There’s a transition from playing to going and doing something else, because you can’t replicate the locker room and you can’t replicate running out of the tunnel,” said Brees. “There are only moments, feelings and emotions that are very, very difficult to reproduce after you became a professional football player. Now, I think the great thing about the opportunity I have is: No. 1 I transition from an incredible team to another incredible team with NBC, the best of the best. . . . I’m just as excited to be at the booth with Mike Tirico as I am to launch passes for Michael Thomas on Sunday, and I’m serious when I saw this. I can talk about the football game. I can still eat, sleep and breathe the football game. I can still show my love and passion for the game, but in a different way. This will certainly help to ease the transition for me. “
Brees, 42, said his decision to close was difficult, but with which he is at peace.
“Since the 2017 season, I have really approached each season as if it could be the last, and I approached the off season that way and approached every game during the season that way,” said Brees. “There was no additional pressure on that, because I really tried to play every game as if it were the Super Bowl, as if it were the most important game of the season. Therefore, my preparation has always been the same. It has always been consistent. I always wanted to give my absolute best on the pitch every time. What I started to do was maybe just enjoy some of the little things a little more. So the bus goes home, the plane goes home, the locker room later, just smell the roses, so to speak and really stay in the moment and enjoy it, and knowing that if something happened where it was suddenly an injury or whatever, and that was my last game, so i know i put everything i could into it. I just approached each year for the past four or five years that way, with that mindset. I think it served me well and I think I played my best football at that time.
“Ultimately, the factors that influence this are, I have always said, as long as I can play at a high level; I am having fun doing this; and I’m able to stay healthy, so that’s something I’ll do forever. Obviously, I have had some injuries in the past two years that have been frustrating. Both are kind of weird things. I don’t think it was injuries that said I was getting old. Still, I had the thumb that ruled me five games two years ago, and then the ribs and lungs that held me for four games last year. Can I continue playing? Yes, I’m sure I can. But I am also looking at my children, my family, their age and just evaluating all of these things. There is a balance there. I also felt that I would feel it. I would feel it when it was time. I felt it was time. “