Drew Brees Admits Bountygate Gave Saints Extra Motivation, Tells Hilarious Matt Light Story
BOSTON (CBS) -- If there's any other quarterback who knows how it feels to get railroaded by the NFL and feel the desire to make Roger Goodell hand him the Lombardi Trophy, it's New Orleans Saint quarterback Drew Brees.
The Saints got hit with massive penalties, some of which were overturned, for the 2012 Bountygate scandal. Among them was a one-year suspension for head coach Sean Payton. Brees was asked about the incident when he joined Toucher & Rich at Radio Row in Houston, admitting that it was hard not to feel some extra motivation to win it all that year - not that the Patriots would need DeflateGate motivation to make the Super Bowl.
"The Patriots are probably going to be here, anyway. But does it add a little extra satisfaction or motivation? I don't know, maybe," said Brees. "I know the way we felt [in New Orleans] coming off that whole bounty fiasco and accusations back in 2012, and that was what we wanted, to make Goodell give us that trophy. For sure, we had that feeling. But any extra motivation you can draw, any chip on the shoulder, I think we as players like that."
When asked about Tom Brady and his unprecedented success, Brees explained what makes the Patriots so hard to slow down - and why so few quarterbacks can do what Brady does.
"I'm so impressed with the dynamics and things that I see between [Brady] and Josh McDaniels, and just that offense, and each and every week they gameplan their opponent," said Brees. "You'll turn on their games one week to the next and it might look like a completely different offense, as far as where they're putting guys and what they're doing or how their plan of attack is for that defense, and it's very specific for each opponent.
"The amount of time it takes to do that from week to week, installing those new schemes or that plan and then having the discipline to go out there and execute it, is really, really tough."
So if it's all about preparation and execution, why don't more teams just do what the Patriots do?
"Because you have to have really smart, tough, disciplined guys to do it, and not everybody has those guys," said Brees. "It starts with the quarterback, and Tom drives that ship. And there's not a better guy in the history of the league to do it the way he's done it."
There's a reason that many fans may question how great Brady really is, even after watching him. The Patriots offense doesn't do many things that are too flashy or eye-popping - and that's why they can still sneak up on people.
"It's nothing crazy, it's nothing exotic, but it's just execution and it's discipline and it's not making any mistakes," said Brees. "And next thing you know, you look at the scoreboard and they're winning 34-13."
Brees closed out his visit with a funny story about his former Purdue teammate and former Patriots offensive lineman, Matt Light. During his first week visiting the Purdue campus, Brees walked up to a frat party to see a melee breaking out, only to find out that it was Light taking on four frat boys by himself.
"He could have handled all four of them on his own," said Brees. "He was just fine."
Listen to the full podcast below:
