New Orleans Saints’ Drew Brees speech helped lead to a Purdue victory

New Orleans Saints captain Drew Brees stopped by the Purdue Boilermakers’ locker room prior to their game against Nebraska and gave the speech of a lifetime.

New Orleans Saints all-pro quarterback Drew Brees played four seasons for the Purdue Boilermakers from 1997 to 2000. In those years, he would go on to surpass 11,000 passing yards and 90 touchdowns. All while only throwing 45 interceptions.

Drew had the option to leave the Boilermakers after starting every game as the captain his junior year, but he decided to stay and finish out his schooling.

That senior year Brees upset the likings of the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines to win Purdue’s first Big Ten championship in football history.

Brees finished fourth in the Heisman voting in 1999 and third in 2000. He also won the nation’s most outstanding player award in 2000 to go along with the Davey O’Brien award he won in 1999.

Throughout his college days, Brees set two NCAA records, 13 conference records and 19 Purdue football records. He was voted into the Purdue athletics hall of fame in 2009 and was also voted the Big Ten’s best quarterback of the decade for the 1990s.

To say the least, Brees has a long history with the Purdue Boilermakers and a bond like that is what makes a college and player inseparable. Over the weekend on the Saints’ bye week, Brees stepped over to go watch his alma mater play the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Before leaving the locker room on Saturday, the Boilermakers’ football team was visited by its former legend. Brees had this to say.

After this dynamic pump-up speech from No. 9, the Purdue football team marched out onto the field. Initially, it didn’t look like the speech made any difference as the team failed to score in the first quarter but gave up ten points.

The second quarter looked like a new ball game as they came out and Jack Plummer ended up throwing two touchdowns. Going into the half, the Boilermakers had the lead 14-10.

The third quarter only saw two field goals leaving it at 17-13 heading into the fourth.

The Cornhuskers scored first to take the lead 20-17, then the Boilermakers refusing to give up scored again making it 24-20 with 6:50 remaining in the game. Adrian Martinez of Nebraska ran it in from four yards out on the next drive making it 27-24 with 4:21 remaining.

This is what Brees was talking about, defining moments are made today. Streaks start today, wins start today. In the next three minutes, the Boilermakers marched down the first and David Bell rushed in from nine yards out on the game-winning drive to put Purdue up 31-27.

The New Orleans Saints’ quarterback’s alma mater got the victory on Saturday. Can we say that his speech won them the game? Maybe not, but it definitely helped.