The Saints have gotten themselves pretty worked up over “rumors” that never were anything resembling a “report.”
A week ago at the owners meetings in Phoenix, Saints coach Sean Payton delivered a lecture on media ethics regarding the speculation that Drew Brees might be traded (which was never really reported as a possibility anywhere), and now Brees has taken his turn.
During an interview with WWL radio, Brees himself decried the chatter.
“I’ll be honest with you, I really did not pay attention one bit,” he said, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “This is that time of year where I am very focused on family. . . . I have a close enough relationship with everybody within the Saints organization that if something was going on, I would have heard about it from them.
“If there was any seriousness, you know, reality [to the rumors], that would be discussed. Anything that I hear or get wind of is typically false. False reports.”
All this has been discussed and disparaged, though the most substantive thing written was a New York Daily News column by Gary Myers which was effectively, “Hey, the Jets oughta see if ...”
Otherwise, there are a lot of denials of something that was never really a story to begin with.
The 36-year-old Brees did say he “absolutely” planned to retire as a member of the Saints, though his contract only runs through the 2016 season.
“But I also understand the reality of the business,” he said. “You got to perform, you know. You got to give them reason to keep you around.”
And if he doesn’t, there might be actual reports to shoot down a year from now.