NEW ORLEANS (WGN) — Drew Brees had his fair share of fun in New Orleans, taking the Saints to football heaven. Now, the future Hall of Famer has found a second line of work, quarterbacking one of the fastest-growing sports in America.

“Look. I’m a sports junkie, right? I love ping pong. I love tennis. I love racquetball – any sport,” Brees explained.

And like millions of others — pickleball.

“During COVID is, obviously, when I think when pickleball exploded just because everybody’s stuck at home with nothing to do. They just start lining courts in their driveways, in the street with their neighbors,” Brees said, adding that pickleball became an escape for him and his wife during the pandemic. “When you’ve been homeschooling four kids and you’re just at your wit’s end, it’s like, ‘Let’s just go outside. Let’s take a deep breath. Let’s just kind of hit the ball back and forth and just talk. Talk about the day. Kind of just recap, you know?’ So, it became a little bit of our therapy.”

Those sessions snowballed into a full-blown passion for the game that the former Super Bowl MVP has thrown his time and money into.

“I love the sport because it is something that everyone can do. Like, literally you and I could go out on the street in New Orleans right now and we could just pick two random people and grab four paddles and say, ‘Hey, let’s have a game.’ And we could go out there and we can have fun, right? Think — is there any other sport where you could do that? No. Any other sport requires some level of maybe experience or athleticism, but pickleball is just very inviting.”

Brees has helped build courts across the country, bought into a Major League Pickleball ownership group, and even started his own Pickle Fest in New Orleans.

“We’ve got a young girl, nine years old, playing. We’ve got an older woman, 92 years old, playing. So, I mean, think about that age spread, right? They’re on the court at the same time playing with each other or against each other. And it’s fun.”

It’s also giving back to the community. The tournament, now in its second year, benefits the Brees Dream Foundation, which has raised over $50 million for a number of causes, many of which affect the people of New Orleans.

“New Orleans gets in your blood pretty quick. I was told this right when my wife and I came on our first visit to New Orleans: ‘If you love New Orleans, it’ll love you back. If you hate it, it’ll hate you back.’ But we chose to love New Orleans and New Orleans absolutely loved us back.”

Brees’ first visit to New Orleans came shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit and he saw the devastation up close after his driver made a wrong turn.

“Do you know who my driver was? Sean Payton. Sean Payton had only been here for a month, so he didn’t know where he was going. Plus, roads were closed and detours, so he didn’t know the shortcuts.

“They were so worried because, man, there was not a lot of bright spots about New Orleans at the time to show somebody that you’re trying to court to come to the city. It’s like, ‘Hey! Come be a part of this devastated city.’

“They picked me up from the airport and they drive my wife and I to the Saints’ facility in the most blacked out limo you’ve ever seen. Like, you can’t see out of the window. They’re like, ‘Hey, we just want you to have privacy and this and that.’ No. It’s because they didn’t want us to see what was happening outside.

“We get to the facility. Half of the facility is taken over by the National Guard. There are literally helicopters taking off and landing on the practice field. We’re kind of stuck over in this little corner.

“Sean Payton drives us for 45 minutes outside of town, which is where he was building a house, because there was really nothing close to the facility here in New Orleans proper that was worth showing. Then, on his way back, everything is going perfect, and then Sean Payton gets lost. All of a sudden we’re going through a neighborhood and we’re looking out the window and it’s houses ripped off the foundations, a Chevy truck upside down in the living room. We turn the corner. The car stops. My wife and I look up. There’s a tugboat in the middle of the road. We can’t go around it. I see Sean Payton’s head drop. He calls Mickey Loomis, our GM. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m lost. Yep, Drew’s in the car. Yep, it’s bad.’

“But, it actually had that reverse effect. My wife and I looked at each other. We’re like, ‘This is about so much more than football. This is God’s calling for us to be here and be part of this.'”

For the next 15 seasons, Drew helped lead the Saints to over 140 victories, many coming inside the Superdome.

“It was unbelievable. It’s one of the greatest home atmospheres in all of sports. It is that way because of the connection that the city and the people and the fans, the Who Dat Nation, have with their team.

“We encompass a region. It’s not just a city. We encompass the state of Louisiana. We claim Mississippi. We claim Alabama. We claim the Florida Panhandle, for goodness sakes. Probably down to parts of Texas, if you know what I’m saying. That is our region. It’s a region that kind of has had to go through all the same struggles and persevere through so many hardships together. I think that’s what’s unique about our area. We feel the strength of all these people and the Saints are just woven into the fabric of this community. It’s just part of the culture.”

Brees eventually took the Saints to the Super Bowl and brought home the first title in franchise history.

“That was amazing. That was four years after we all signed here in 2006. That was the moment when we were starting this journey. We knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight. We knew there was so much work that was going to go into building the foundation for our team and doing our part to help this city and this region flourish again. Not just come back, but come back stronger than it ever had been before. I’m a true believer that that’s what adversity brings. Adversity brings opportunity. You just have to be able to get through those tough moments and those hardships and kind of see the forest through the trees.

That moment was, obviously, a dream come true because you dream about that as a little kid. I’d always dreamt that I would have a family and I’d have a son that I’d be able to hold up and share that moment with. Sure enough, it was that manifestation just coming to life right before our eyes.

“It’s still one of the greatest moments in my life. Always will be.”