Brees Changes Story About Making Comeback With Broncos

The Denver Broncos had an intriguing offseason, and there are still rumors hanging around that won’t go away. One of the most amusing and controversial ones is the ongoing kerfuffle about Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees supposedly wanting to play for the Broncos in the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots after quarterback Bo Nix went down with a broken ankle. 

This has been one of those “yes he didn’t, no he did" stories with Brees, with the initial reports coming from some combination of Brees and a pair of former Broncos assistant coaches. 

From the Broncos perspective, the problem if it came from the Denver coaching staff is that it raises a tampering charge, as absurd as that may seem. The reason for this is that Brees remains on the reserve retirement list of the New Orleans Saints, which means he can’t play for anyone other than the Saints until that sticking point gets resolved.  

Broncos coach Sean Payton is well aware of that, which is why he quickly denied knowing about his former assistants contacting Brees. That would open up the possibility of a tampering investigation, and the last thing Payton wants is the league in the middle of his business given his free-wheeling style when it comes to running the Broncos. 

The Brees part of this is a little different. He knows full well that he couldn’t have played, because his shoulder was basically shredded when he retired. According to a report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that referenced podcast material from Jim Gray, Brees said he can’t throw with his right side anymore, and that a ten-yard throw would result in a “lot of pain.” 

But Brees did “think about it,” per Gray, which is a veiled attempt to take his old coach off the hook with the tampering possibility. He added that he “immediately” texted the former assistants, Pete Carmichael and Joe Lombardi, and he said he actually did try to throw to his 13-year old son. But it was “not happening” with his right side, which we’ve all sort of known from comments Brees has made in the past about this sort of thing. 

The other part of this story that bears mentioning about Brees is that he’s been trying to get his name back out there as a possible broadcast analyst or panel member on a pregame show. Brees already tried this and it didn’t go well, but the money has gone up for doing that by a lot, so he’s taking the possibility a lot more seriously now.