BOISE, Idaho — This Day In Sports…October 8, 2018:
During a Monday Night Football contest in front of a raucous home crowd in the Superdome, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees breaks Peyton Manning’s NFL career record for passing yards in a 43-19 rout of Washington. Brees wasn’t picked until the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft out of Purdue and spent the first five seasons of his NFL career in San Diego. He was in his 13th season with the Saints when he topped Manning’s 71,940 yards.
Brees was the NFL’s first 80,000-yard passer, finishing with 80,358 yards, a record that would be broken by Tom Brady and his eventual 89,214 yards. Brees also held the NFL’s career touchdown passes for a time, moving past Manning in 2019 before that standard was also topped by Brady. Brees had 571 TD passes to Brady’s 649. Brees also owns four of the top five single-season completion percentages in NFL history, ranging from 71 to 74 percent. The only other player in the top five is not Brady, but Sam Bradford.
Brees, who played a total of 20 seasons, also possesses an NFL record that may never be broken—it’s kind of like Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in baseball. Brees threw at least one touchdown pass in 54 straight games. The streak began in October, 2009 and ended in November, 2012. The previous mark of 47 consecutive games had been held by the great Johnny Unitas for 52 years.
His first five NFL seasons were a slow build. Brees didn’t rock the world during his first three years in San Diego, but he caught fire in 2004, winning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award. Then in the final game of the 2005 season, Brees tore his labrum. And, with Philip Rivers waiting in the wings, the Chargers let Brees go into free agency, where he was signed by the Saints. The Chargers rue the day, as Brees played 15 more seasons and won a Super Bowl, something that the Chargers have never done—in San Diego or L.A.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
