Drew Brees Thinks He Can Play Another 10 Years

Getty Images via Zimbio

The good news for fans of the New Orleans Saints is that their quarterback Drew Brees is feeling confident and is clearly fired up for football season, which is just weeks away. The bad news is that he is, unfortunately, delusional.

At a press conference on Friday 35-year-old Brees told reporters that he could easily see himself playing football for the next 10 years. When pressed for details later in the morning, the always affable quarterback was happy to speak more on the issue.

Said Brees:

“No doubt. There’s no question. I’m not getting ahead of myself, like it’s a pipe dream, at 45. I understand the challenges that come along with that. But why not? If I can stay healthy, and I’m having fun and playing at a high level, why wouldn’t I wanna do that? The biggest challenge is physically, the maintenance, the recovery, the way you train. You gotta hope that you stay healthy, but why not?”

To back up his non-pipe dream, Brees cited the success of players like Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Although we’re not sure he was making quite the case with those examples as he thought he was. For one, Manning and Favre were both perfectly healthy at the age of 35 and within three years everything had changed.

Manning had never had a serious injury in his career before developing a neck problem that required a series of surgeries which kept him out through the entire 2011 season and led many to believe would end his career. Sure he’s still playing, but it’s hard to imagine he’s got more than another year or two left in the tank.

As for Favre, who didn’t miss a single start between 1993 and 2009, he was wrestling with possible retirement for years before finally pulling the plug after the 2010 season. His teammates banded together to beg him to come back that season, but the 40-year-old Favre was a shell himself by the end of the season and didn’t even start the final few games.

So if anything, Manning and Favre are evidence that Brees has no idea what he’s talking about and may not be prepared for the rapid aging his body will almost certainly undergo over the next few years.

Mentioning Brady was even more of a head-scratcher. First of all, he’s only a year and a half older than Brees. And although he hasn’t missed a start for quite awhile, he’s struggled with a few nagging injuries the last two years and his stats have dropped sharply across the board since his career-best season in 2011. That’s not to say that Brady isn’t still great—he is—it just makes it hard to believe he’ll be around in five years, let alone 10.

The major difference between those three guys and Drew Brees is they have between three and five inches on him respectively. At 6’0 Brees is already a statistical outlier at the position. Him being able to play till the age of 40 is statistically unlikely—45 is virtually impossible.

You’ve got to appreciate his optimism though.