Payton and Brees, стр. 44

maybe you didn’t expect on game day, but very similar to that, when you have the answers to the test before you take the test—‘If they do this, I’m going to do this, and if they do this, I’m going to do that’—then you feel like, ‘Man, there’s nothing they can do that I don’t have a plan for.’ You go in with a lot of confidence and a sense of peace, like, ‘I put myself in the best position to succeed today, so whatever happens, happens, and I’m just going to turn it loose.’”

Brees started the visual walk-through sessions early in his Saints career and has religiously continued them on the day before games throughout his tenure in New Orleans.

Teammates and staff members often happen across Brees during one of his sessions on their way from the weight room to the team cafeteria and say he is so focused on the task at hand that he doesn’t even notice their existence.

That was the case for Reggie Bush and some of his teammates from the Super Bowl LIV championship team on this particular Sunday. The players were in New Orleans to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Super Bowl championship. The weekend was a three-day celebration of parties and public appearances. Payton invited the team to the Saints’ walk-through practice and Bush, Scott Shanle, and Scott Fujita stumbled upon Brees going through his on-field rehearsal 40 minutes after practice.

Bush pulled out his cell phone, recorded a couple minutes of the session, and posted it on social media. The video went viral in minutes.

“This is what the leader of an organization, the leader of a football team looks like, right here,” Bush narrated to his 651,000 Instagram followers. “This is what it takes. There’s nobody in here but one man, getting his mind right, doing what he needs to do to prepare himself for greatness, for tomorrow’s game. And this is what he does every week, every day [as long as he] has been playing football now. That’s what it’s about. You want to be great. This is what greatness looks like right here. Ain’t no shortcuts in this world. You get what you put in.”

The visualization exercise is just one facet of Brees’ legendary weekly routine, which is planned almost to the minute, a regimen that amazes his teammates and coaches because of the discipline and mental toughness required to maintain it. Even after the birth of his four children and an expanding business portfolio, Brees has refused to take shortcuts or reduce his workload. Instead, he just started waking up earlier and adding more hours to his day. Brees believes the onerous daily schedule is necessary to adequately prepare his body and mind for game day. And the high standards he sets for himself have raised the bar for everyone else in the building—players, coaches, and staff members alike.

Brees’ path to greatness started in San Diego. After his second season as a starter for the Chargers, Brees’ career was going nowhere. He won only 10 of his first 28 games as a starter and threw more interceptions (31) than touchdowns (28). He knew he needed to overhaul his entire life if he wanted to reach his potential. In the 2004 offseason, he changed his diet, his strength training, his approach, and his attitude. He worked with performance specialist Jim Brogran on conditioning and balance work and consulted with House about throwing mechanics as part of a broad-based overhaul. He overhauled his diet after a nutritionist discovered he was allergic to wheat, barley, rye, all dairy, eggs, pineapple, and a variety of nuts. He even went online to complete a “Star Profile” to identify potential problem traits. That season, Brees led the Chargers to a 12–4 record and AFC West Division title, while earning the first Pro Bowl berth of his career.

“He realized he had more in the tank and went out and found a way to get more out of his gene pool,” House said. “He grew up to be the individual he was capable of being. All we did was put the jigsaw puzzle together.”

When Brees arrived in New Orleans as a free agent two years later, he brought his regimen with him and continued to perfect it. No stone was left unturned. He knew he needed to maximize everything within his control—conditioning, nutrition, game prep, mental stamina—to compensate for what he couldn’t control: his lack of prototypical height, speed, and strength.

To that end, Brees developed a strict daily regimen—one for the season and one for the offseason. And from Day One, he committed himself to always being the first and last player in the building.

When Jamie Martin signed with the Saints in 2006 to be Brees’ backup, he moved to the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. On the first day of the offseason training program that April, Martin left home well before dawn, afraid that the infamous lake fog along the causeway would cause him to be late on his first day. His was the first car to arrive in the players’ parking lot.

“Drew walks in a few minutes later and says, ‘Hey, you get here pretty early, huh?’” said Martin, too chagrined to tell his teammate it was simply a case of overcorrection. “The next day I get there, and sure enough, Drew’s car is already there in the parking lot.”

All these years later, little has changed. He’s always the first player to arrive at the Saints training facility in Metairie and the last to leave. He’s tweaked his routine to adjust to changes in the Saints’ practice schedule, but otherwise his weekly regimen has stayed largely the same.

For Brees, winning a game starts with the preparation. He firmly believes the work he does Monday through Saturday is just as important as what he does on game day. As a reminder, he keeps a plaque with a quote from Chinese military strategist Zhuge Liang on a shelf in his locker: Those who are skilled in combat do