Brees credits his athletic success to a childhood spent pursuing numerous sports, including baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis and cross country.
By high school, Brees saw himself as a potential prospect at shortstop or third base who could hit for average and power from the left side. The athlete he most admired was Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams, the inspiration behind Brees wearing the No. 9 throughout his NFL career.
When Brees tore knee ligaments during a high school football playoff game his junior season, he worried most about how missing baseball the following spring might jeopardize his scholarship prospects.
Baseball “is what I was hoping would be my path,” Brees recalled, adding that he was not bitter about not receiving football scholarship offers from Texas, where his uncle, Marty Akins, played quarterback, or Texas A&M, where his parents went to college.
None of the major football programs in Texas offered him one.
“I get it,” Brees said. “We won a state championship. I was 5A state offensive player of the year. But, I didn’t have a lot of the measurables.”
But Brees got an offer from then-Purdue coach Joe Tiller, who ran a pass-heavy spread offense. Intrigued, Brees accepted, moving about 1,100 miles from home to continue playing football.
Playing at Purdue transformed Brees into a bona fide NFL prospect.
“Had I gone to Texas, I would’ve handed the ball off to Ricky Williams; if I’d gone to A&M, I would’ve handed off to Dante Hall,” Brees said. “I go to Purdue and I’m throwing the ball 50 times a game.”
In 2000, Brees led Purdue to just its second Rose Bowl and first in 34 years. He was a Heisman Trophy finalist and chosen Big Ten offensive player of the year for a second time.