'''Drew Christopher Brees''' (born January 15, 1979 in Austin, Texas) is an American football quarterback who formerly played for the San Diego Chargers in the NFL. In 2006 he signed a contract with the New Orleans Saints.
College career
Drew Brees was the Texas Class 5A Most Valuable Player in 1996 while leading Westlake High School to a 16-0 record. Brees attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He left Purdue with Big Ten Conference records in passing yards (11,792), touchdown passes (90), total offensive yards (12,693), completion percentage (.611), completions (1,026), and attempts (1,678). He also led the Boilermakers to the 2001 Rose Bowl, Purdue's first appearance in Pasadena since 1967. Brees was a finalist for the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's best quarterback in 1999. Brees won the Maxwell Award as the nation's outstanding player of 2000. Brees was also fourth in Heisman Trophy voting in 1999 and 3rd in 2000. As a senior Brees was named the Academic All-America Player of Year, the first Purdue Boilermaker since Bruce Brineman (1989) to earn national academic honors. Brees also was awarded for his humble and productive attitude when he was the recipient of Purdue’s Leonard Wilson Award for unselfishness and dedication. Additionally, Brees guided the Boilermakers to their first Rose Bowl appearance in over a quarter-century. Brees locked up the bowl berth by leading Purdue to a hard-earned October victory over Ohio State, capping the Big Ten battle with a 64 yard touchdown pass to wideout Seth Morales, a walk-on transfer from Butler University. Replays of the scoring pass show that Brees had the rare discipline to go through his recievers to the fourth option on the play. This was not the first time Brees had led the Boilermakers to a thrilling come-from-behind fourth quarter comeback victory. In Brees' sophomore season, Brees led the team on an 80 yard drive with 1:25 left in the 1998 Builders Square Alamo Bowl versus #4 ranked Kansas State, capping it off with a 25 yard touchdown pass to senior WR Ike Jones with :45 seconds left in regulation. The win was significant in that it is only one of two times an unranked team has upset a Top 5 ranked team in a bowl game, the other being the 1984 Rose Bowl, in which UCLA, led by future college head coach Rick Neuheisel at quarterback, engineered a 45-10 upset of #3 ranked Illinois. He also appeared on the cover of the Sega Sports NCAA College Football 2K2: Road To The Rose Bowl for the Sega Dreamcast.
NFL career
Draft
Brees was drafted by the San Diego Chargers with the first pick
