Drew Brees and Gladwellian Ideas
Meaningful Work, Desirable Disadvantages, and Community lead to success for quarterback.
By Trevon Couser | Business Marketing Major at Bethel University (St. Paul Minnesota)
Austin West Lake High School quarterback Drew Brees scrambled from the pocket and ran to the sidelines. A sweaty 6 foot 5 330 pound lineman is chasing him, and he tackles him. “POP” Brees hears his knee pop. Brees started in 29 games on his high school football team and never lost once. After he led Austin’s Westlake High School to the Texas state title during his senior year, Brees was named the best offensive player in the whole football-crazed state of Texas. But when it came time for Brees to pick a college, he found himself begging rather than choosing. Tearing his ACL, unfortunately, cut his junior year season short and that may have spooked some recruiters. Others may have thought he was a tad short at only 6 feet tall and little slow let’s just say his 40 yard dash time wasn’t great. Nevertheless, Brees worked so he would be noticed by some scouts, but most looked the other way because of the lack of speed he had (Boehme 4).
Brees finally got an offer from Purdue University, and later his dad was asked about his decision and said this “Fate, destiny, whatever you call it,” Chip Brees said, “he ended up at exactly the right place for him at exactly the right time” (Chicago Tribune) In Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell writes, “Practice is not the thing you do once you are good. It is the things you do that makes you good” (42). Being one of the smaller players on any of his football teams exemplifies Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers theories about meaningful work, Desirable Disadvantages, and Community Leading to success.
When Drew was growing up, his father would throw the ball to him in the yard but his main playmate was his brother Reid. He’s two and a half years younger then he is but they played all the time in their little yard in Austin Texas. They called it the “field”; it was a patch of grass that was about as big as a regular living room. The trees that bordered the yard acted as the sidelines and the invisible goal lines were engraved inside their minds so they knew when they scored. But there was a big gap of strength when a fifth-grader played a second grader so to make it fair Brees would play on his knees. They played full-on tackle no two-hand touch or shove, tackle. It was always him and Reid in the backyard beating each other up with a football (Brees 3).
Drew’s Grandfather Ray Akins was a marine and he served in world war ll. After the war, he coached high school football for thirty-eight years, and he won 302 games in his career as a head coach. So you could say football was in Brees’ blood. Nevertheless, Drew’s grandfather Ray was a legend in the state of texas and the best of all Brees said he was my grandfather. Ray coached at Gregory-Portland highschool in portland texas just outside Corpus Christi. He used to let Drew come and attend his summer workout two-a-day practices. He said “It was a thrill just to be that close to the game and players. I would have never guessed back then that I’d be on the other side playing them someday” (Brees 4).
One of Gladwell’s points in Outliers includes meaningful work which increases their game by hard work. Drew Brees was destined for great things as a football player an important factor in Meaningful work is hard work. An example of hard work in outliers is from this quote “The thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder” (39). I really think this quote screams Drew Brees’ name. He is one of the hardest working people I’ve ever heard of. Like when he made the JV team his sophomore year and he told his mom I like football but I don’t want to sit on the bench. His mom agreed I wouldn’t want to sit the bench either but she said this too drew that I think really stuck with him and made him work so hard. “But remember this: when you least expect it, that opportunity will present itself. You never know when it’s going to come, but all it takes is one play to get your shot” (Boehme 7).
Something I found interesting was that with all this hard work and dedication he put in he was never really recruited heavily. He was the starting quarterback his junior year finally and they got to the third round in the playoffs and they were undefeated. They went and played a team down south and it was a hostile environment. It was a bootleg play he faked the handoff and he goes to his right and he gets clobbered by this big beefy lineman and he feels his knee POP. He immediately knew something was not right. When the doctor looked him in the eyes and told him he tore his ACL he was completely devastated. He was not devastated because of the hopes and dreams he had for that season but because he had friends and teammates who have had the same injury never fully recover. Drews backup Quarterback said this “Drew is the most competitive person you’ve ever met and for somebody to tell him he can’t do something had challenged him and that’s the worst thing you can do is challenge drew brees because he will step up to the challenge and 9 times out of 10 if not 10 times out of 10 he will meet it”
(A champions journey 5:35). This motivated him and his faith grew through this time and he really became the Christian he is today because of this injury. Eventually, through his hard work and dedication to his rehab, he made a full recovery. His high school coach mentioned that he thought god played a huge part in his recovery process because God knew what his plan was for Drew.
Throughout Drew’s high school career, he was faced with many disadvantages, but something that was unknown played a huge part in where he is today. In an article from Forbes, they talk about the advantages of disadvantages. They said “Desirable difficulties is a notion taken straight from the psychological literature from the work of [Robert and Elizabeth Bjork at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles]. They were interested in that idea in the context of learning theory. It is not always the case that if I make the task of learning something easier for you, your performance will improve. There are sometimes cases where your performance will improve if I make the task of learning more difficult for you. Not always, but what they do is draw a line between difficulties that are ultimately desirable and those that are not.” (Forbes)
One of the most difficult things that Drew ever experienced as a child was the divorce of his mother and father. But it was that adversity that brought him and his brother together. He was seven and his brother was five when the split happened. He didn’t quite understand and had many questions. He often wondered if it was his fault. But he made it a priority in his life to never get a divorce and when he met his wife he knew that wouldn’t be an option. Drew and his brother remember having late nights crying themselves to sleep praying mom and dad would get back together. Nevertheless drew and his brother Reid made their own fun but to their misfortune, they would have to come and face the reality of a broken family when they got back home. Brees said, “Man, how did my family end up with so many problems? But I’ve found that when you start talking to people, everybody’s family has something they’ve dealt with. It’s not whether you will have problems within your family; it’s how you handle those difficulties when they come your way” (Brees 7).
As a kid Drew got bullied a lot because of his distinguishing birthmark on the right side of his cheek. His mom and dad used to tell him that an angel had kissed him, but the kids at school didn’t see it that way. They used to tease Drew and take jobs at him in the classroom and on the playground saying things like what happened to your face or wipe that stuff off your face. Of course, he got in a few fights because of it. Nevertheless, he was given the option to get the birthmark removed but he declined to do so. Instead of seeing it as a bad thing, he chose to see it as something that made him unique and special, in a way it was his own trademark. These experiences taught him to have the ability to shake off jabs and criticism. Which is not a bad trait to have as a quarterback in the NFL or any job for that matter.
Recalling Drews’s ACL injury his junior year, he was not recruited that year at all. Usually when you’re going into your senior season that’s when you go and tour these schools and go to those summer camps so coaches can see you. So he went to these camps just getting off his ACL injury and he’s slower but he has a rocket for an arm but he’s not very mobile. Many coaches saw drew as a 6-foot tall quarterback that played for a good team and they thought his talent went only as deep as the system they played. So midway through playoffs his senior year he did not receive a single phone call from a school even tho he was the 5A state player of the year on the 5A state championship team. He finally got 2 offers from Kentucky and Wyoming and the coach from Wyoming decided to take the head coaching job at Purdue. The funny thing is Drew thought Purdue was an ivy league school he had no idea it was a big 10 school. Through it, all Drew finally got his dream to play college football at Purdue where he shattered records and met his wife that he later settled down with and had a family. (A champions journey 15:50)
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he explains that “To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success — the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history — with a society that provides opportunities for all”(313). This is essentially what Drew Brees has set out to do not only for himself on and off the field not just for his family but for his community and others.
When you think of Drew Brees you think of a great quarterback, maybe one of the greatest to ever play, but his legacy encompasses much more than just a great football quarterback. While Brees was in high school he decided to follow his faith and try and make life better for others. Brees worked with many charity organizations while he attended Purdue University and he remains involved with the Purdue community to this day. When Drew was drafted he continued to spend time helping others, especially kids, and improving their lives. Working closely with his lovely wife Brittney to create his own charitable organization. The foundation is The Brees Dream Foundation. On their site, their mission is to improve the quality of life for people that have cancer and provide care, education, and opportunity for these kids and families that are in desperate need. They work with a ton of organizations but some that are the most notable are Second Harvest Food Bank, Green our Planet, and Louisiana Children Museum. Amazingly they have more than $35,000,000 contributed to charitable causes globally around the world. This is a big reason he is nominated as a Walter Payton Man of the year (honoring a player’s volunteer and charity work, as well as his excellence on the field.) since he won the award back in 2006. (DrewBrees.com)
When the Saints recruited Brees to come and join the Saints as the starting quarterback the city had not quite recovered from the devastating hurricane Katrina that hit the city a couple of months before. Brees saw first hand what this hurricane had done to the city and sought some way to help. With The Drew Brees foundation that was started in 2003 Brees immediately inserted himself in the Hurricane Katrina recovery movement and in 2007 he announced that he would partner with Operation Kids in an attempt to somehow rebuild the schools, parks, and athletic centers. Brees became instantly popular in New Orleans with people calling him a hero. Not to mention he turned the Saint’s record from 3–13 to 10–6 in one year and they won the NFC South Division Title. (Boehme 8).
Thirteen years later, at this moment, our country is in a pandemic. People need ventilators and people are very sick and the hospitals don’t have the resources to treat all these people. They need money and resources to help battle this pandemic. Recently Brees donated $5 million out of his pocket for hospital equipment. Brees recently said “There are so many people in need right now and obviously the state of Louisiana thrives on small business and were a hospitality state. So many people have been affected by this around the country but especially New Orleans.” (Today Show 00:34) When Drew and his wife think about people’s basic needs in New Orleans it’s that people are all fed. So that’s where they wanted to start and obviously there is a lot more work they are going to do besides feeding families in need. Some people refer to brees as pretty much the mayor of New Orleans because he takes care of his people so well. Specifically, relief efforts are serving children, hospitals and healthcare workers, seniors, families, first responders, and daycare staff. This shows us that Brees shows up for his community whenever they need someone to look to.
A sweaty 6 foot 5 330 pound lineman rushing at Drew. The three Brees boys watched from the sidelines as their dad threw the ball down the field. As the ball sours through the air the stadium gets quiet. Everyone is holding their breath. As the receiver catches the ball and runs 62 yards for a touchdown everyone knows what just happened. Drew Brees broke Peyton Manning’s all-time passing record with an epic touchdown. Brees immediately runs to his family and hugs his 3 boys and says “you can do anything in your life you just have to work hard for it” (Business insider 00:07). This is the moment when all three of my Glaswegian ideas meaningful work desirable disadvantages and his community came together in Brees’ life. The question is will Drew Brees record ever be shattered, or will he forever live in the football hall of fame?
Drew Brees has made his voice about his religion very clear since he was a very young age. He even shared his favorite bible verse, 2 Corinthians 5:7 with the public which says “for we live by faith, not by sight”. He encourages people to live out your faith and share God’s love with friends. He also states that “I live by two very simple Christian fundamentals, and that is, love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself,” (SportsSpectrum).
How can we work hard enough to get to where we dream of being? According to Gladwell “If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.” (Outliers 151). We are the only ones that have control of our dreams. We may have minor setbacks along the road but pushing through setbacks define the record breakers of the world.
WORKS CITED
“A Champion’s Journey: the Drew Brees Story.” A Champion’s Journey: the Drew Brees Story, 14 Mar. 2020,
Boehme, Gerry. “Drew Brees.” Google Books, Google, 2020,
“Brees Dream Foundation.” Brees Dream Foundation.
Brees, Drew, et al. Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity. United States, Tyndale House Publishers, Incorporated, 2010.
Cash, Meredith. “Drew Brees Had an Inspirational Message for His Children after Breaking the All-Time NFL Passing Record.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 9 Oct. 2018
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Print.
“New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees: ‘I Live by Two Very Simple Christian Fundamentals’.” Sports Spectrum, 6 Sept. 2019,
“New Orleans Saints’ QB Drew Brees: ‘Hang In There and Maintain Hope’ | TODAY.” New Orleans Saints’ QB Drew Brees: ‘Hang In There and Maintain Hope’ | TODAY, Today Show, 2020,
Wharton, Knowledge. “The Advantages Of Disadvantages.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 5 Dec. 2013,
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Trevon Couser, a freshman from Edina, Minnesota, seeks a business marketing degree from Bethel University to someday join a company in its marketing department. Couser likes fishing, eating meat, being with buddies, and just being outdoors.
What I've learned
Gladwell’s 10,000 hours is very true and makes or breaks athletes.
Good things do come out of difficulties.
Dropping someone in a moment really is a great attention-getter.
Fragments are good when you're trying to be like the character.
Starting on a bad team doesn't define your potential.
If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.
I can be a better writer though naming dogs and dropping the reader into a moment.
I can be a good writer no matter what anyone says; I just need to put in meaningful work.
We were in the classroom and the class just started. We were introduced to something that would change my perspective on all the sports world. Gladwellian ideas. When I first heard Gladwell's name, it didn't mean much, but now his name means a lot to my new perspective on sports.
