A little bit more facial hair and Drew Brees could have been the NFL equivalent to Gerard Butler's famous portrayal of King Leonidas, the ferocious leader of the Spartans. Of course, he ticked most of the other boxes — the leadership qualities, the support of his army and the epic rallying cries.
As it turns out, that exact scene and the unforgettable shout that ends it — "This is Sparta!" — was the inspiration for Brees' pregame speeches when he decided to take over that role in 2008. He joined former teammates Cam Jordan and Mark Ingram on the latest episode of "Truss Levelz" from The Players' Tribune.
So, '06 was when I got there, when Sean Payton got there, kind of the start of the new era. And Joe Horn was kind of the emotional leader on the team, right, so Joe Horn had a little something he did for pregame, and it was good. It was hype, it got us ready. But Joe was only there for a year, so then '07 rolls around and I remember Reggie Bush tried to kind of take it over, and he basically just tried to mimic what Joe Horn was doing and it just didn't quite work the same, right?
You needed to come up with something fresh, new. So we went through the '07 season, we had a bad season... '08's rolling round and it's like, alright, what are we gonna do, because we've got to change it up, we've got to make it our own. And I kind of looked around and was like, well, it's not really my personality — I go into games wanting to just be calm, cool, collected, not like banging my head into a wall like a special teams guy or a defensive guy like yourself, Cam — but I was like, you know, somebody's got to step up and do it, so I'll come up with something fun.
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Well, the movie "300" came out that year, right? So like, "This is Sparta!"... that got you hype, right? And I was like, alright, I'll do something off of that movie. So first preseason game, we are at Arizona, and I told Zach Strief, I was like, 'Hey, Strief, I got a little something for the guys. You gotta be honest with me, though. I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna be all in, but you gotta tell me if this thing tanks, if this sucks, if nobody likes it, okay? Be honest with me.
So I get in there and I think it went something like... "Who are we? Saints! Who are we? Saints. Are we ready? Awooo! Are we ready? Awooo!" And then I'd repeat it. And I was like, "This is New Orleans!" because there's that scene in th emovie where he goes, "This is Sparta!" and he kicks that dude into the big black hole... and I was like, alright, this will get them hype. So I did that and then Strief came over to me and he was like, "man, that was real. We gotta keep that going." So that was the origin of it all, 2008.
Brees and the Saints never looked back after that moment. Though the precise wording of each pregame speech may have changed over the years and depending on the situations, Brees still filled that role to perfection and gave us countless incredible scenes of pure adrenaline.
Brees' retirement obviously leaves a void to be filled in several facets of the game, but pregame speeches are definitely no different. Ingram and Jordan both wondered whose assignment it would be to take over, and it's definitely a question worth asking. How do you fill the shoes of the most epic pump-up speeches and chants after a decade-plus of pure Brees goodness? If it's Jameis Winston, he'll have to hone his craft just a little bit.
Yea... maybe we'll leave it to someone else. On the other hand, Demario Davis has to be seen as a strong candidate.
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