"Brees becomes new patron Saint in New Orleans" is the title of an excellent feature story by Jim Corbett in USA TODAY the other day.  The quarterback has become an ambassador for the city after the team's run to the NFC Championship Game last season.

Drew and his wife Brittany unveiled a $2.5 million Brees Dream Foundation in help  revitalize eight local sites, including schools, fields and after-school mentoring programs, all designed to ease the stresses facing the future generation of post\Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

Part of the Brees' initiative will finance a multi-use football-baseball-soccer field on the divot-filled  Lusher Magnet School grounds in uptown New Orleans that will benefit four schools and recreational leagues. Brees suggested a distinctive Fenway Park-style Green Monster for the new facility.

"We have the blessing of an NFL superstar who has taken us under his personal wing," Lusher football coach Gian Smith told the sportswriter. "Before he even really knew this city was going to embrace him, he came down and the first thing Drew Brees did was bought a house here. The second thing he did was say, 'Let me see what I can do to help.' "Drew Brees is part of us."

"Drew is the hope guy," said Rick Larsen, president of national charity Operation Kids, which partnered with Brees; foundation. "Drew has this attraction to areas where hope is fading. He wants to give people in those situations reason to hope again.

"He's one of those rare guys who doesn't think he's entitled to be a famous athlete. He feels like he has this responsibility to do something with that privilege."

Renowned orthopedist James Andrews operated on the quarterback's shoulder was ripped apart in San Diego's season finale, Brees' last game with the Chargers. Andrews told Brees his odds of a successful comeback were 500-1.

"I've never seen an athlete mentally tougher or more motivated,"     said Andrews, a SEC pole vault champion at LSU in his college days. "Most guys don't come back from that injury.

"His shoulder went out the bottom. It was as if his arm went way over his head. It ripped his rotator cuff, and there was a 360-degree tear of the labrum."

When the Saints were trying to sign Brees as a free agent, coach Sean Payton recalled the night he was driving the Bresses around and got lost. The coach;s sweaty hands were on the wheel, and Saints GM Mickey Loomis was on the other end of the cellphone, trying to navigate him back on track.

"I knew they were going to Miami the next day," recalled the coach. "And I'm like. 'Forget dinner. I might as well drive them to Miami and open the door for (then Dolphins coach Nick Saban).' "I thought we have no chance of signing this player.' "

"When we came here, I was in the process of rebuilding as well," Brees told USA TODAY of his experiences over the past 16 months. "The Saints organization was trying to rebuild. The city is trying to rebuild. I'm trying to rebuild, literally, a shoulder and a career."

"Drew and Brittany have been a great addition to New Orleans, besides the turnaround the Saints had," said Saints icon Archie Manning and the most popular player in team history. "So many of us are involved after Katrina, and so many of the Saints, especially Drew, do great things."

"When I look at the this city, I tried to put myself in everybody's shoe here," Brees told the newspaper. "We're at a tipping point right now. New Orleans needs something that's going to tip it in the right direction to get people to want to come back.

"I needs leadership. It needs integrity. It needs a plan. We're trying to provide all these things If I'm a parent and there's doubt as to where my kids are going to school, where they're going to play and find after-school mentoring programs--if those are in doubt--I don't want to come back. So we're trying to provide those things."

Brittany said her husband had to get injured for them to move to New Orleans and it was one of the better things that has happen to them.

":During the season, people came up to Drew, not necessarily to say, 'Great game,' or anything about football," Brittany told the newspaper. "It's, Thanks  for coming to New Orleans. Thanks for believing in us.' "

Native New Orleanian and former Rams running back Marshall Faulk said, "The Saints made the right decision signing Drew Brees--not just in terms of his arm, but because of his heart and mind."

"There are still some abysmal, dismal areas," added Saints running star Deuce McAllister. "Hopefully, people around the country won't forget about people here. But the more successful we are on the field, the more it  brings New Orleans back into people's consciousness--'Let's go to New Orleans. Let's go visit and see how things are progressing.' "

"These people (New Orleans) are trying to rebuild their lives and homes," said the quarterback. "They don't always have money to do that. Yet they find a way to get season tickets. It just the hope. belief and faith they're investing in the Saints. When you hear that, you just want to reward them."