Drew Brees On the Saints Running the Read-Option: “Never Say Never, but Highly Doubtful”

Drew Brees would obviously have preferred to have played in Super Bowl XLVII last night in New Orleans, but Brees sucked it up this past week and performed as an ambassador for his adopted home city as tourists invaded the Big Easy during Super Bowl week. Drew Brees joined Scott and BR on the Mighty 1090 in San Diego, live from New Orleans, to discuss the week leading up to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the NFLPA-NFL relationship and the read-option.

On having to suck it up last week without the Saints in the game:

“I had to move past that and embrace the opportunity to kind of represent the city and the opportunity to showcase the city. It’s been 11 years since New Orleans hosted a Super Bowl, but it’s a record-tying 10th time that New Orleans has hosted a Super Bowl, and there’s a reason for that. It’s because it’s really the perfect place with the perfect venue. Everything is so centralized to downtown.”

On his issues with the commissioner:

“A lot of our issues were the result of the bounty accusations and allegations and, really, the lack of evidence to support the punishments that were handed out. But I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that there really is no neutral arbitration in regards to how punishments and fines are handed down in certain cases. The commissioner has too much power — judge, jury, executioner when it comes to a lot of those things. And so to be able to have a third-party neutral arbitrator that could step in and kind of preside over those deals and those disagreements, I think that would solve a lot of problems for a couple reasons. The main one being that if both sides know it’s going to neutral arbitration, they’re more apt to come together and find some common ground. But I would say player health and safety has been probably number one for us as the players association the last few years, especially since the lockout and renegotiating the CBA. It will always be priority number one, and especially in light of the concussion issues that guys are facing now, with these long-term health problems. It’s a serious issue that we’re always going to be at the forefront of. But I think we would say we don’t feel like the NFL, in a lot of cases, has done enough to try to help them out or to certainly meet us in the middle in a lot of ways so that we can agree on where a lot of this funding, that we have designated funds for through the new CBA, would go.”

On if he can see the Saints offense incorporating the read-option:

“Never say never, but highly doubtful. I could pull up some college film and show you some QB draws and a little bit of read-option, that kind of thing, but those days are long gone. I’ll take off and run for a first down every now and then, maybe in the red zone take off for the end zone and try to get in, but I don’t know if you’re going to see me running the read-option any time soon.”