Drew Brees on State of College Football: 'It’s Terrible and Something Needs to Be Done'
Drew Brees caught up with Complex to talk college football, his Dos Equis campaign, the best Cajun food in New Orleans, and more.
An astronaut revisiting Earth after 10 years in space would not recognize the state of college football today. Some people love it, some people hate it—put Drew Brees in the latter category.
“I think it’s terrible and something needs to be done about it. Like ASAP,” said the Purdue alum. Brees shared his criticisms but he also offered some solutions. Brees could ride into the sunset as the second all-time NFL leader in passing yards and touchdowns, but as a father of four, he isn’t afraid to put his foot down.
I haven’t retired yet, but I imagine it gives a lot of time for reflection, which can be inward or outward. You can reflect on what you’re most proud of, and you can also reflect on who was there for you when you needed it the most. (In Brees’ case, that includes a neighborhood Cajun restaurant in Uptown New Orleans.)
We think of Drew Brees as a stern leader and a family man. But you probably don’t think of him as the patron of 50,000 free beers for college kids.
We sat down with the retired MVP to talk about the state of NIL, hidden gems in New Orleans, and what it’s like to be a girl dad.
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
West: Word on the street is there’s CFB stakes involved with your Dos Equis campaign. Can you confirm?
Drew: Yeah. I'm excited to partner with Dos Equis for the college football season in our campaign of Go For Dos. In other words, we want teams to go for two more this year than they did last year. So last year, can you guess how many times Division 1 college football teams went for two? It’s kind of a fun little stat.
West: I'm going to go with 400 times?
Drew: 392.
West: Hell yes.
Drew: Bottom line is this: If Division 1 college football teams go for two more this year than they did last year, Dos Equis is giving away up to 1 million free beers to college football fans.
If teams get a healthy lead, let’s go for two. You start going “for dos” every time. Look, some of the best plays in football are when you do stuff that's unexpected, right? Like the unexpected outside kick or whatever. We need teams to line up after their first touchdown and go for two because college football fans will love you for it.
Dos Equis
West: What are your top situational beers?
Drew: Well, sitting at the beach. Beach beer… I also love a fire-pit beer. And how about a just-for-the heck-of-it beer, end-of-a-long-day beer.
West: Beautiful list. You had a great college career at one school and didn't transfer. That’s not necessarily the state of college football these days, and I wanted to know where you stand with NIL and the transfer portal.
Drew: Yeah, I hate it. I think it's terrible.
I think something needs to be done about it. Like ASAP, guardrails need to be put up. I mean, look, I hate just pointing out problems and not having solutions. I feel like there's some pretty easy solutions. Number one, don't let kids transfer until they either have a certain number of college credits completed or they've completed a certain number of seasons with their team. I'd say three seasons, if we're talking specifically about football. They could go three seasons with a team and you know what, by then you recognize it's not working out. Not going to play, it's not a great fit, whatever. And then you can transfer and have two years somewhere else. But if you're going to go there year one and get your feelings hurt and then want to transfer, you shouldn't be able to without penalty. The thing that's been lost in this whole thing is education. Are we valuing education at all anymore? Are people actually choosing universities based on the degrees that they have the opportunity to get or following their passion in regards to academics? That's totally gone by the wayside in this. So maybe we make guys have a certain number of college credits. Let's incentivize them with that.
Dos Equis
West: Sometimes I wonder where these guys tell people they went to school once they’re out of college. Being proud of your singular university matters a lot to me. Do you think that value is being lost as well?
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Drew: I mean, when you have one of the greatest ever in Nick Saban—who knows how to build a program, knows how to develop young men, knows how to build a winning culture and a winning team—who steps away as a direct result of what's happening with NIL and the transfer portal, we should all perk our ears up and pay attention to that. And he's not the only one. I've spoken to many college football coaches who are saying, “If this continues, I'm out.” And that's a shame because I think we're losing some of the best coaches and best mentors and developers of young men as a result of that. And to me, that's what college athletics is all about. You go there as a kid and you leave as a man or a woman, somebody who's developed incredible character traits and leadership traits that you go off into the world and you apply to whatever it is you do. Many of those athletes are not going to be professional athletes. If they are, it'll be one or two years and then they're off to whatever their career is, which gets back to the academic part of it. It would be nice to have completed that degree that you can then utilize to go pursue whatever your passion in life is. So I feel like that's really being lost. Putting some guardrails back on this thing is not going to take away from the excitement and the competition that we've always loved with college football.
I mean, look, I love some of the changes that they have made. For example, I think the 12-team playoff is awesome. You talk about generating some excitement and getting more and more teams and fan bases involved in an end-of-the-year tournament-style competition. It's awesome. I just think there's a much better way to handle this whole NIL transfer-portal thing.
West: This might be the first time Sean Payton's got a locker room of young quarterbacks. Do you have wisdom for young QBs building a relationship with Coach Payton?
Drew: Yeah, well look, it’s tough, right? Sean's demanding. Sean expects a lot. I mean, Sean's also a great teacher, so soak it all up and apply it. You’ve got to have thick skin at times. That's part of the growth process and the learning process. But man, all Sean's trying to do is build the best winning culture that he can and put you in the best position to succeed. You have to recognize that. When a coach cares about you, then you don't mind him being hard on you. You don't mind him holding you accountable, right? And that's Sean Payton.
West: Now that you’re retired and have had time to reflect on a lot of your accomplishments, is there one thing that sticks out to you that you're most proud of?
Drew: Honestly, just being a part of the resurgence of New Orleans. That'll always be one of the most valued, most rewarding experiences of my life. And I say that for my whole family. Our foundation still does a ton of work there. Over the last 15 years, we've been able to raise or commit over 50 million in the city of New Orleans, tons of different projects, and gotten so much support along the way. It's been incredible. And so yes, there's the football side of it, but then there's more of the community side to that—it's all intertwined and you don't see one without the other. So that's what will always be a lasting memory from my career, but it continues.
West: That's incredible. Speaking of family, you had three boys in a row, and now we have a girl! What have you learned being a first-time girl dad?
Drew: It's funny because look, you parent ’em different, right? The boys and the girls. I find that I'm much harder on the boys; my daughter gets whatever she wants. She's 10 years old now, which is crazy. Hit the double digits. My boys are also getting to an age where they're teenagers. So my objective with the boys now is more like, how do I get them ready to become men? Whereas my daughter, it's still that stage where I don't want her to grow up yet. Stay right where you are, your daddy's little girl. I'm really intentional with her about creating special moments and memories just because the girls are different.
Dos Equis
West: I did a food crawl in New Orleans last week. It’s arguably the best food city in the country. I need to know your favorite hidden gem in New Orleans.
Drew: OK, so my favorite spot is a place called Ye Olde College Inn. It's on South Carrollton Ave., so it's not downtown. If you're staying downtown, it's not walking distance, but it's a short cab ride or Uber ride. It's really like in the middle of a neighborhood so you almost feel like it's like the show Cheers. You walk in, everybody knows your name, love that. It's got the square bar set up right when you walk in. There's tons of off-menu items, the menu is awesome. I feel like it's the cleanest way to eat New Orleans Cajun-Creole kind of food. And yet you can go crazy if you want with the sauces and everything, but there's also stuff that's more like, hey, I don't see it on the menu, but do you have it? And chances are they do.
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