Payton and Brees, стр. 46

“I thought, ‘What in the world is he doing?’” Hill said, laughing. “When I saw the way that he prepared, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. This guy still prepares this way when he knows the offense as well as he does, and he knows these defenses better than the defenders themselves. But that’s just a testament to Drew. He always wants to be prepared. He’s going to do everything he can to allow himself to be successful and his teammates around him to be successful.”

But Hill and Kirkwood, like the rest of their teammates, quickly learned there was a method to Brees’ madness.

“There’s not any rock that is not overturned,” Hill said. “Everything he does, every single throw in practice, is deliberate. That’s what it boils down to. His ability to be deliberate in everything he does. If you think about it, that can be exhausting. But he does it.”

Brees’ zealous commitment to excellence reminds Lombardi of a phrase used in U.S. Army Special Forces: how you do anything is how you do everything.

“I don’t think it’s ever applied to anyone more than it does him,” said Lombardi, a graduate and former tight end at the U.S. Air Force Academy. “I bet there’s nothing that he doesn’t do with the same approach. I bet he brushes his teeth with the same routine. ‘How can you be the best tooth brusher you can be? I’m going to do it.’ I’d like to say I’ve got a way of doing business, but when I go play golf, I could give a shit. He cares a lot about everything he does. And there’s a purpose. ‘All right, how do I do this best?’”

Joe Brady, the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator, said he constantly told his players at LSU about Brees’ extraordinary work regimen and commitment to excellence. He used Brees as a role model to inspire his players and motivate them to adopt better practice habits. If Brees can do it, he says, they can, too.

“Everything matters to him,” Brady said. “The way he watches film and how you know at 6 am he’s going to be in the tight ends room at that exact time watching film. How when he approaches that huddle for a walkthrough and OTAs it’s just like he would be doing if it was the Super Bowl. Everything matters to him.”

Payton compares Brees’ preparation habits to a fighter pilot.

“His mental preparation during the week and just the exhausting nature of what that takes is amazing to watch,” Payton said. “There has been a ton of great players that have played in this league and there’s certain ways that they prepare and that’s his formula. He’s a tireless worker, and the attention to detail and the little things are important to him. He gets out of whack when the routine’s off a little bit.”

Brees’ weekly focus and concentration set the example for the entire team—players, coaches, even people in the organization’s business operations. His attention to detail and high standard of excellence are infectious and force others to raise their own standards to keep up with him.

“The way he does everything, how he handles his business, the way he’s always the last one to leave the field—he never stops, he’s just relentless,” All-Pro receiver Michael Thomas said. “All of that is contagious to me. You want to try to perfect your game so that one day you can be an elite guy like him.”

Alvin Kamara started following Brees’ work and study habits shortly after he joined the organization in the spring of 2017. He’d never seen a player work as hard as Brees. His work ethic resonated with the star running back and motivated him to work just as hard at his craft.

“I kind of took a step back and was like, ‘All right, well, if I want to be the best, then I gotta know what the best knows,’” Kamara said. “And I think Drew is probably one of, if not the, smartest people playing football right now, so I was like, ‘All right, if I can get myself to try to be as in tune to the game as Drew…I can only get better. That’s why he’s been so successful, because it’s like he has an answer for everything. It’s like the kid you hate in class because he always knows the answer. That’s Drew—but I love him, because he’s my quarterback.”

To reach the highest level of professional sports, players and coaches must have exceptional talent and work ethic. What separates Brees is his almost superhuman mental stamina, the ability to continue to study and process information, hour after hour, day after day, week after week.

“It’s been the same way since he got here,” said Strief, who joined the Saints at the same time as Brees in 2006 and has been with him as a teammate or coworker for his entire tenure in New Orleans. “It’s how he was the day he got here in 2006. Some of the routines he has have not changed. You don’t run into people in your life that can do that. Most people mentally just kind of exhale and let up. He doesn’t have that mechanism in his body. It’s a super unnatural ability that he has. He does the same stuff today that he was doing five years ago—at the same speed, at the same tempo, with the same intensity. It’s the healthiest case of OCD I’ve ever seen. It’s so productive. And it’s something that most normal people could never maintain. I can’t do that. It’s what makes him exceptional.”

House, Brees’ performance coach, has scientific testing to confirm Strief’s analysis. Using a device called a FocusBand, House and his staff have measured Brees’ brain activity during various activities: workouts, practice, interacting with friends and family, playing with his kids. Remarkably, Brees’ brain produced similar levels of output in each instance. There was no difference between the way he attacked his daily workout