26 December 2011, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Sean Payton:Number one, anytime we win this division, everybody in our organisation gets a game ball. It's the third time in six years now. Listen it's the very first step. [inaudible 00:00:16] we list is winning our division. We played a real good team tonight, we played better than them. That's a great win, that's a great win. Win the division at home on Monday Night Football like that with everything else that went on, it's outstanding.
Second thing here, I want to reflect on something here. Guys [inaudible 00:00:32] by a pro tonight, quarterback by the name Dan Marino was drafted in 1983. Now it took about four or five others ahead of this guy and he might be one of the top five that ever played this game. He had big arm, great release. This guy won a lot of games, but never won the Super Bowl but the year he set this record was 1984 his team was 14-2 that year, the Miami Dolphins. He threw for 5,087 yards. They won the AFC East. This is his second year in the league. They went to the Super Bowl that year and he lost to San Francisco 49ers but it's important for us to understand the history of this league.
Now he's a badass player tonight, alright, but another badass player broke his record tonight.
Players: Yeah! [Applause 00:01:26]
Sean Payton: We are definitely going to make him speak in a second but I'll say this too, alright, and I'm serious when I say this, there is about ten, fifteen, twenty more chapters in this book, all right, all of us as a team, led by him at quarterback, all of us staying together, winning together, walking together forever. Each year we do something special, this years we got a chance to do that, Drew you gotta say something.
Players:Speech!
Drew Brees: Well I'm trying not to get emotional because I can't have me doing that, especially when a lot of you guys ... because I love y'all so much and you mean so much to me.
To think that we had this opportunity, it's pretty amazing. We came close to this a few years ago and to be perfectly honest with you I thought man no way we'll ever get that close again, but I guess I underestimated the opportunity we would have because of the guys in this room.
And I say that with all sincerity and as genuine as I can because I truly feel that way, there maybe only one name that goes into the record book but its all about you guys. I'm not just talking about players, I'm talking about coaches that bust their ass staying late nights away from their families putting together game plans that allow us to go out there and succeed and play well, to get our name in the paper. To everybody in the building, our staff, Mr. Benson, Mrs. Benson, Rita, the equipment managers that rub down those balls.
[Laughter 00:03:24]
Y'all know what I mean. Full service.
Mr Benson: We gotta get up here and give him a hug.
Drew Brees: And to trainers Scotty Panduch, who stretches my shoulder twice a week, we got a tradition. I can't tell you just how much I love you guys and I wouldn't want to be in this journey with anybody else. You make me so proud and I know that this is just another stepping stone to our ultimate goal, this is something we can look back on and we can talk about.
But what I want is for us to look back and a guy on the defence to say yeah, I was on that team I was a part of that I made plays that year to help that guy had that opportunity, I was an offensive liner that blocked for that guy, I was a receiver that caught balls, I was a running back who caught balls ... ran, set up opportunities, I was a coach on that team.
I want everybody to be proud of this because it's all about you not about one person and that's the journey we're on and it's going to be about us as we continue on as we win this week and we continue to win and we continue this journey cause it's all about the prize at the end, so I'm just happy to be out with you and love you.
[Applause 00:04:43]
Hey, hey listen y'all know what time it is team on three, one, two, three
Players: Team!