Brees, Moore Go to Indy for Luck, Mathis, Draft Picks
It will go down as either the day the New Orleans Saints
franchise began to die or the day it was reborn, though in the opinion of one
longtime NFL observer, it was a move both teams needed to make.
Reports have spread the organization has traded franchise
quarterback Drew Brees and wide receiver Lance Moore to the Indianapolis Colts
in exchange for their starting quarterback Andrew Luck, Pro Bowl defensive end
Robert Mathis and their First (24th overall) and Third (86th
overall) round selections in the 2013 NFL Draft.
Also as part of the agreement the Saints will swap fourth
round picks with Indianapolis. New
Orleans will send over their 109th overall selection for the Colts’ 122th
overall pick. Neither team has a pick in
the second round, with New Orleans losing theirs as part of the NFL’s
punishment for the team’s alleged bounty scandal while Indianapolis sent its
second round selection to Miami as part of a previous trade.
Though the move will comes as a shock to the Black and Gold
faithful. In addition to his and his
wife Brittany’s charity work throughout Katrina ravaged New Orleans, the future
Pro Football Hall of Famer is the most popular figure in the entire state of
Louisiana.
“Brees isn’t just a great player; he is the franchise,” said
NolaFootball.com managing editor Danny Tompkins. “Nobody did more to not only turn the
organization around but raise the spirits of the city as well. I understand the reasons for (the trade) and
I think the Saints got great value considering what they gave up. I just don’t think I could have pulled the
trigger.”
Longtime Indianapolis sports writer L. Bridge Gerry also was
floored by what is being touted as the greatest sports trade of all time. “After losing Peyton (Manning), the franchise
just hasn’t been the same. Sure, Andrew
(Luck) is great. Brought the team to the
playoffs in his first season, but number 18’s cleats are too big for him to
fill,” said Gerry. “Brees on the other
hand can bring us to the next level this season.”
Brees is no stranger to Indiana. Having spent four years with the Purdue
Boilermakers, Brees set team and Big Ten records that still stand. Last year, Purdue’s trustees voted to name
their student-athlete study center after the Breeses, who had donated
$2,000,000.00 for its construction.
Brees’s following in Indiana is so strong that Lafayette, IN is the only
city north of the Mason-Dixon line that is part of the Saints radio network.
Sports financial analyst Garret Hobart echoed Tompkins’s
comments about both the painfulness of the decision to move Brees but the
necessity as well.
“Clearly the Saints were not making big splashes in free
agency. The nine-figure contract was too
me much for the team to swallow,” said Hobart, referencing Brees’s then-record
setting $100,000,000.00 contract. “The
front office was in a pickle; how do you not sign your team’s greatest player
ever but then how can you live with a contract that essentially prevents you
from fixing the worst ever defense?”
Hobart pointed out that with $40,000,000 of salary cap gap
and a young team, the Colts was the logical suitor for Brees. “His history with Purdue is huge. He’s certainly one of the greatest players of
all time and he’s the only person who could come close to plugging the hole
Manning left,” said Hobart.
The Saints pick up a proven defensive playmaker in Mathis,
who will put pressure on opposing quarterbacks that was lacking for the Black
and Gold. Mathis racked up 8 sacks last
season. In Luck, the Saints have their
young quarterback of the future and can now afford to buy him some protection
at tackle with the new cap space.
Though popular with local fans, Moore helped sweeten the
deal for the Colts. With his steady
hands making him a favorite target of Brees, Moore will also help the Colts as
a potential punt return option.
Though the neither team’s front office have confirmed the
trade, player Twitter accounts flared up late Easter evening as news began to
spread about Brees’s departure for the north.
“I feel numb,” tweeted tight end Jimmy Graham. “All I can say is April Fool’s”.
The rest of this story is filler
in the event you scanned to the very bottom of this write-up to verify that it
is a prank and not an actual story. That
said I bet that a bunch of people won’t bother reading to the end and will
simply stop reading after a few paragraphs.
But to really mix things up I am going to throw in a few other quotes
from players.
Defensive end Will Smith, one of
the longest tenured players on the team, also tweeted his bewilderment with the
news of the Brees trade. “I feel like
someone dropped a piano on me,” tweeted Smith.
Defensive captain Jonathan Vilma,
expressed his best wishes to Brees. The
Saints quarterback publicly backed his teammate throughout the Saints bounty
scandal.
