American football: Brees can achieve royal status with Super Bowl triumph

By helping New Orleans' renaissance following Hurricane Katrina through wide-ranging charity work and his constant promotion of the region's cultural assets, Saints quarterback Drew Brees is clearly one of the city's adopted sons.

Indeed, he is so popular that candidates in yesterday's mayoral election joked during the campaign that they would drop out of the race if Brees decided to run.

Winning today's Super Bowl against the Indianapolis Colts would only enhance his status.

That's saying a lot because the First Family of Football - the Mannings - live there, too, and are all but regarded as royalty in the Big Easy.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning isn't just an opponent, he's practically a neighbour.

"My parents have gotten to know Drew and his family," Manning said.

"I just have an appreciation for guys that play for the New Orleans Saints, that live there in the offseason, that commit to the city year-round as opposed to just playing there."

"Drew has committed his efforts in the philanthropy part of it to the city, to the rebuilding of the city. As a native of New Orleans, I certainly appreciate that," Manning continued.

Brees, along with wife Brittany and one-year-old son, Baylen, are well on their way to achieving similar Manning status.

Brees often compares the resurgence of his career after a serious shoulder injury at the end of the 2005 season - when only the Saints believed he'd recover - to the recovery of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit that same year.

When he first came to New Orleans in the spring of 2006, much of the area was still a wreck. He bought and renovated a century-old house near the Mannings in the historic Uptown neighbourhood and, along with Brittany, started leading efforts to rebuild schools, playgrounds and athletic fields.

"I've embraced the community of New Orleans just because it is a special place, and they've embraced me and my wife in a way that I can't even describe," Brees said.

"There is nothing more that I want for them than a championship."

At 1.83 metres, Brees is shorter than the prototypical quarterback. He looks more like a regular guy than a world-class athlete and has been underestimated for much of his athletic career.

Despite leading Purdue university to its first Rose Bowl in more than three decades and becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist, most NFL teams passed on him before the San Diego Chargers took him with its second-round draft pick in 2001.

In the past four years since nearly everyone wrote him off, Brees has passed for 18,298 yards, the most of any quarterback during that span.

In 2008, his 5069 yards passing made him only the second quarterback to throw for more than 5000 in a season and left him 16 yards short of breaking Dan Marino's 1984 NFL single-season record.

He has twice led the Saints to an NFC Championship game and now to the Super Bowl.

Brees threw for 4388 yards and a league-leading 34 touchdowns in 15 games this season, sitting out the last one of the regular-season because New Orleans had already wrapped up the NFC's top playoff seed.

- AP