On Monday (March 12) at Zach Strief's retirement press conference with the New Orleans Saints, the room got misty-eyed when the retired offensive tackle talked about how his single greatest motivation as a player was Drew Brees, and how his greatest drive was to not let his quarterback down.
Brees, in attendance for the conference, was visibly emotional during Strief's lengthy speech.
On Tuesday (March 13), Brees and the Saints announced that the two sides had agreed on a new two-year contract before NFL free agency began in earnest on Wednesday afternoon.
As the terms of the deal slowly start to be released it shows that Brees, while still among the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league, took significantly less money than he could have gotten on the open market to allow the Saints to be an attractive place for free agents to land.