Drew Brees named SI's Sportsman of the Year

[News_Editor]

Drew Brees named SI's Sportsman of the Year

2010-12-01 00:19:59 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW YORK (BNO NEW) — Sports Illustrated Group Editor Terry McDonell on Tuesday announced that New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees was named the 2010 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

Brees, 31, becomes the 57th honoree since the magazine's founding in 1954, joining legendary athletes and sports figures such as Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Jack Nicklaus, Derek Jeter, John Wooden and Cal Ripken Jr. to receive the award.

"Drew's accomplishments go far beyond delivering a Super Bowl title to a notoriously long-suffering franchise," McDonell said. "He has been a driving force in a battered city's ongoing efforts to rebuild and renew while simultaneously resurrecting his own career."

The billing on the Sportsman cover, The Saints' Super Bowl-Winning Quarterback Continues to Inspire a City on the Rebound, encapsulates what Brees means to his team and his town.

Brees was coming off a devastating shoulder injury and his career was at a crossroads when he joined the New Orleans Saints in 2006, moving to a city that had become a shell of itself in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"I needed New Orleans just as much as New Orleans needed me," he told Senior Writer Tim Layden. "People in New Orleans needed somebody to care about them. And it was the one place that cared about me."

From 2006–09, Brees threw for the most yards (18,298) and tied for the most touchdown passes (122, with Peyton Manning) of any quarterback in the NFL.

He was at the height of his brilliance during New Orleans' championship run in 2010—the first in the team's 47-year history—culminating in an MVP performance during the Saints' 31–17 upset of the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.

However, Brees has been just as active off the field, establishing the Brees Dream Foundation in 2003 to support cancer research and the education of children in need, which has worked with nearly 50 New Orleans schools and organizations to promote civic recovery.

"It's hard to point to a relationship in our league, between a player and a city, that's more meaningful than the Saints and Drew Brees," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Layden.

Brees will be honored at a ceremony in New York this evening where he will be joined by past winners Bill Russell (1968), Billy Jean King ('72), Mike Eruzione ('80), Joe Montana ('90) and Curt Schilling ('01 and '04). CBS Evening News anchor and Managing Editor Katie Couric will also take part in the ceremony, accepting Brees's invitation to participate as his mentor.

Brees is the sixth quarterback to win the award and the third in the past six years. The five previous quarterbacks to be named Sportsman of the Year are Terry Baker of Oregon State ('62), Terry Bradshaw of the Steelers (along with Pittsburgh Pirates' star Willie Stargel ('79), Joe Montana of the 49ers ('90), Tom Brady of the Patriots ('05) and Brett Favre of the Packers ('07).

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