A quarterback's inspired call

The Texan's choice to opt for New Orleans over Miami five years ago has turned out to be inspired, not only to the team's performances on the field but also on his life.

Drew Brees has no regrets about choosing New Orleans ahead of Miami five years ago.

MIAMI // Five years ago, Drew Brees found himself a free agent with a straight choice - a laid back Florida lifestyle with the Miami Dolphins or the challenge of a New Orleans still recovering from the devastation of hurricane Katrina. The highly rated quarterback chose the New Orleans Saints and is one win away from taking the team in black and gold to the Super Bowl for the first time, an achievement that would be an enormous boost to the city's comeback from disaster.

The Texan's choice has turned out to be inspired, not only in terms of his and his team's performances on the field but also in the impact the city has had on the life of the 31-year-old Brees. "It's been unbelievable, I said this from the beginning, I felt like it was a calling," he said this week as he prepared for Sunday's NFC Championship game against the Minnesota Vikings. "An opportunity to come here and not only being a part of the rebuilding of the organisation and getting the team back to its winning ways, but to be part of the rebuilding of the city and the region. It's been very special."

Hurricane Katrina hit America's Gulf coast on August 29, 2005, killing more than 1,800 people, driving 2.16 million from their homes and causing US$75 billion (Dh275b) of damage. "A lot of people watching were like me," Brees said. "You watched Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and New Orleans specifically on TV, and you just don't understand the magnitude of what happened here and the devastation until you actually come down and see it with your own eyes."

"So as a free agent, when I came on my visit six months post Katrina, it was still very much a shambles. Everybody was just trying to get their lives back together and rebuild their homes, figure out where their kids are going to go to school. Getting back to work and all those things. Many doubts." The Superdome that is home to the Saints and has hosted six Super Bowls became a shelter for thousands left with nowhere else to turn during Katrina and did knot reopen until a year later.

During that year the Saints had to play at venues outside the area and it was in the middle of that 'homeless period' that Brees had to decide whether to join them. "Your two choices are Miami and New Orleans," he recalled. "New Orleans 80 per cent of the city damaged and you're going there six months post Katrina. "Or Miami, you know, from an outsider's perspective you say that is an obvious choice.

"For me, it was much different. I tried to look a lot deeper than just on the surface. "You're looking around at a lot of the neighbourhoods and there are still boats in living rooms and trucks flipped upside down on top of houses. For me, I looked at that as an opportunity. An opportunity to be part of the rebuilding process. How many people get that opportunity in their life to be a part of something like that?

"What we were able to do as a team and organisation and the fans and the people of the city we were able to kind of really form a bond and come together. "That bond is I think what's helped carry us all through and given everybody hope and uplifted the spirits of everyone." * Reuters