Drew Brees Is Truly a Saint

Fortunately, there are a lot of athletes who embrace the communities of the teams they play for, but Drew Brees is taking it to another level. The New Orleans Saint quarterback signed with the team only a few months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city and he has become an integral part of the rebuilding, both symbolically and by rolling up his sleeves and working side-by-side with those who lost so much from the disaster.



Part of the Breeses' initiative will finance a $670,000 multi-use football-baseball-soccer field on the divot-filled Lusher grounds that will benefit four schools and recreational leagues. Brees suggested a distinctive Fenway Park-style Green Monster for the new facility.


"We have the blessing of an NFL superstar who has taken us under his personal wing," says Lusher football coach Gian Smith, 29. "Before he even really knew how this city was going to embrace him, he came down, and the first thing Drew Brees did was bought a house here. The second thing he did was say, 'Let me see what I can do to help.'


"Drew Brees is one of us."


Brees, 28, is embraced here as the patron "Saint" of hope in a place where so much is still needed.



"Drew is the hope guy," says Rick Larsen, president of national charity Operation Kids, which partnered with Brees' foundation. "Drew has this attraction to areas where hope is fading. He wants to give people in those situations reason to hope again.


"He's one of those rare guys who doesn't think he's entitled to be a famous athlete. He feels like he has this responsibility to do something with that privilege."



Amazingly enough, Brees got started with this while rehabilitating his surgically repaired throwing shoulder, learning a new offense, and becoming acclimated for the first time to what was left of New Orleans.



Click here to read more about his efforts in this USA Today story.