Drew Brees Likely Ended His Career With A Brutal Three Interception Night Against The Bucs

Minutes prior to Sunday night’s Bucs-Saints game in New Orleans, Fox Sports’ Jay Glazerreported on the pregame show that Drew Brees would be retiring at the end of this season. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer has the most passing yards in NFL history with over 80,000 and is second in touchdowns and career completion percentage.

He will stroll into Canton in a few years, but the way the final game of his career — at least if Glazer is correct — went down will likely sting the legend for some time. Brees faced off with Tom Brady in a battle of aging quarterbacks, and despite Brady being the older gunslinger, it was his Bucs team that got the job done in a 30-20 victory aided by three rather brutal Brees interceptions.

The first one came on a shorted touch pass that fell into the waiting arms of Sean Murphy-Bunting, setting up a Bucs touchdown to take the lead.

His final two came in the fourth quarter of a tight ball game. The first was an apparent miscommunication with Alvin Kamara and also a ball forced into tight coverage that saw Devin White jump in front of the pass and pick it off to set up the game-sealing touchdown from Brady.

The final throw of Brees’ career, should he indeed hang them up, will be this tipped ball interception by Mike Edwards that officially ended any chance of a Saints comeback.

Brees finished the night 19-of-34 for 134 yards, one touchdown (the backshoulder toss to Tre’Quan Smith below) and the three picks.

It’s certainly not a storybook finish for Brees, who looked to be emotional on the sidelines as the game came to an end and waved to the crowd that was in the Superdome on his way off of that field for one last time. He’ll forever be a Saints legend, certainly the best QB in franchise history and the leader of their lone championship run. This season saw the decline that so many older quarterbacks see, with diminished arm strength limiting what he could do to run a dynamic offense and, against the Bucs, the demands of having to sustain so many long drives to create scores tipped the wrong way.

We’ll have to wait for an official confirmation of Brees’ retirement from the man himself, but while the last game wasn’t how he would’ve wanted it, there are plenty of happier memories from an incredible career to look back on.