Why did Drew Brees retire? QB confirms he would have continued playing if not for 17-year-old unfortunate incident

Former New Orleans Saints star Drew Brees has stated that had it not been for a severe shoulder injury earlier in his career, he would still be playing in the NFL.

Brees retired after the 2020 NFL season after playing 20 years in the NFL. Known as one of the best pocket passers we have ever seen, his retirement has left a huge hole in the game.

Brees spoke with Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press. He said that had it not been for his shoulder injury that took away his ability to launch the ball downfield, he would still be playing today.

The former quarterback said:

“If my arm wasn’t put together with 13 anchors, I’d play until I was 45. And here’s Tom [Brady] doing it because it takes a lot of commitment and sacrifice and not everybody could do it.”

Brees added:

“It became a great struggle to be healthy enough to go out there and really perform at the highest level just with the limitations that I had. I could dice you up inside of 40 yards all day long. But it became it harder and harder to do things downfield.”

The prospect of the Saints star still playing quarterback while Tom Brady is in his division is certainly fun to think about. However, the shoulder injury clearly robbed fans of a few more years of his superb quarterback play.

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Drew Brees was one of the best

Divisional Round - Tampa Bay Buccaneers v New Orleans Saints

The 43-year-old was one of the best quarterbacks we have ever seen. In a time that had Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, Brees was in great company.

He had just about every passing record to his name when he retired, and as we know now, Brady has taken all of those. But the 43-year-old's career is certainly Hall of Fame caliber, first ballot for many.

Across his 20 seasons in the NFL, his list of accolades has been incredible. He is a 13x Pro Bowler, a Super Bowl winner, Super Bowl MVP winner and 2x Offensive Player of the Year. Along with being the Walter Payton Man of the Year, led the NFL in passing yards seven times, led the league in passing touchdowns four times and was tied for most touchdown passes thrown in a game (7).

He retired with 80,358 passing yards and 571 touchdowns, and those numbers could've been higher.