Hurricane Brees and the fairy tale Super Bowl

The fairy tale that culminated last night in Drew Brees leading the New Orleans Saints to an unexpected victory in the Super Bowl began in 2005. The quarterback was playing his last game for the San Diego Chargers before becoming a free agent, released because at 6ft he was deemed too short to ever make it big in the NFL.

The game was against the Denver Broncos and Brees was playing well, until the moment his 190lb frame collided with that of the Broncos' defensive tackle Gerard 'Big Money' Warren, all 320lb of him. Brees suffered a serious injury to his right shoulder. "I was told by some doctors that I had a 25 per cent chance of making a complete comeback," he said later.

Brees did come back, though he soon found there wasn't much demand for a 6ft quarterback recently recovered from a shoulder injury. The Miami Dolphins and the New Orleans Saints were the only two franchises willing to offer Brees the chance for redemption.
 
The Dolphins were on the up, "an ascending organisation", in Brees' words, yet they couldn't offer him what the Saints could. "I got the feeling from the Saints that they had as much confidence in my ability to come back as I had in myself," he said. "I didn't get that feeling from the Dolphins."

But who would want to play for the Saints, a franchise formed in 1967 that was so bad they were nicknamed 'The Aints'? Their fans, with delicious gallows humour, liked to put brown paper bags over their head to illustrate the shame of supporting the NFL's most hopeless outfit.

And it wasn't just the football team that was in disarray when the Saints made the offer to Brees in early 2006. Six months earlier Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, destroying lives and homes, but not the city's spirit. "In New Orleans, I saw an opportunity I couldn't get anywhere else, on that team and to be a leader in the city," said Brees. "It was the defining moment of my life.''

So Brees joined the Saints on a six-year contract worth $60 million but he didn't live the gilded life of a sports superstar. He bought a pad in Uptown, one of New Orleans' damaged neighbourhoods, and devoted his free time to helping rebuild the city. He established a charity in his name and raised nearly $2m to provide sports and educational facilities for the city.

"I didn't see this city as a city that I wanted to shy away from because of the circumstances after Katrina," said Brees. "I embraced that as an opportunity to not only be a big part of this team and this franchise but to be a guy in the community who would give back and do my part."

On the field Brees was just as committed, and last night in Miami, four years after he joined the Saints, they won their first Super Bowl title. Brees was voted the game's Most Valuable Player as the Saints saw off the Indianapolis Colts 31-17. He completed 32 of 39 passing attempts for a total of 288 yards and two touchdowns. It was a performance that eclipsed that of the great Peyton Manning, the Colts' quarterback whose intercepted pass three minutes from the end of the game ruined the Colts' hopes of a famous fightback.

"Four years ago, who would have thought this could happen?" said Brees afterwards. "Eighty-five per cent [of New Orleans] was under water. People were evacuating to places all over the country. Most people left not knowing if New Orleans would ever come back, or if the football team would ever come back. I was coming off what might have been a career-ending injury.

"But somehow, together as a team and with the courageous people of New Orleans, we have somehow rebuilt the city, our team and ourselves. We believed and this is the culmination of that belief." ·