Drew Brees potential retirement date is no sure thing
Drew Brees is closer to the end of his career than the beginning of it, but he still won’t say if 2020 is going to be his final season or not.
It seemed like the New Orleans Saints might have to find a new quarterback for the first time in 15 years this offseason, as Drew Brees was contemplating retirement. If he had, there’d have been a cushy job with NBC waiting for him, as he signed a deal to help out with Sunday Night Football when he does decide to hang up the cleats.
Brees ended up returning to New Orleans on a two-year deal worth $50 million and now won’t say if he plans to retire after the 2020 season.
Brees said decision to come back for 2021 plenty of thought. Said he chose to come back as a team.
— Larry Holder (@LarryHolder) August 1, 2020
As for this being his last season? "Man, I'm not looking past one day at a time."
In 2020 — a year that has been rough on all fronts — it’s not hard to see why Brees wouldn’t want to commit to giving a hard answer on his future.
First of all, who knows if there will even be a 2020 NFL season? Major League Baseball is struggling to prevent outbreaks in clubhouses and the NFL will operate in the same way, without a bubble. If there’s no season, Brees definitely wouldn’t want to go out on that note.
Drew Brees has just one Super Bowl in his otherwise decorated career and of course he wants that second ring.
Secondly, the Saints have been so close to winning a Super Bowl the past three years, but have had freak endings to all three of their elimination games. Brees knows his team is close to getting back to the big game and he’d be foolish to walk away now when his team is on the brink of capturing what they haven’t been able to in over a decade now.
Fans and pundits look at quarterbacks differently when they can win more than one Super Bowl (case in point: Eli Manning). Brees wants to be in that category with the other great quarterbacks and winning a second Super Bowl, especially at such an advanced age.
Next. Drew Brees Backtracks on Years-Old Comments. dark
While Brees is still really good and always gives the Saints a chance to win, he hasn’t been as sharp as he’s aged, as expected of course, and he missed five games last year due to injury. The decline is showing with Brees and it’s possible that 2020 is the final shot for him, but it’s no guarantee.