What is Drew Brees’ connection to Major League Pickleball?
When legendary quarterback Drew Brees left NBC, everyone assumed he was joking about pickleball being in his future. Turns out, not so much.
Drew Brees spent one year as a color commentator for NBC, and when it was announced that he was leaving, speculation was rife that he was going to perhaps play football again. It sounds pretty reasonable, right? He was the top of the heap when he retired and still had a good two or three seasons left in him. Physically, he had taken a beating, though, and the broken ribs that he suffered in the San Francisco game certainly weighed heavily on his decision to prematurely retire.
When posed the question, he made an oblique reference to perhaps playing again, and then quickly added, “I may train for the pickleball tour.” Very funny. The idea of the greatest quarterback who ever donned pads (yes, he is miles better than Tom Brady) having a second career in a senior-citizens’ past time gave the media scrum a chuckle.
Turns out, he may have been serious after all.
What is pickleball?
For the uninitiated, pickleball is a hybrid tennis-badminton-wiffleball-ping pong game that is extremely popular with retirees, particularly along the Pacific Northwest, where it originated. Invented in 1965, it became a firm favorite with community centers and retirement homes, and today has thousands of tournaments in the sport played nationwide.
With interest in the sport spreading via snowbirds back to their summer homes, pickleball took root in southern Florida and in 2021, a professional pickleball league was formed.
Major League Pickleball, based in Dripping Springs, Texas, (all of those words are indeed correct) started with eight teams and then expanded to twelve. On Thursday, they announced that Drew Brees, a huge pickleball fan, had joined the ownership group for “Mad Drops Pickleball Club”, which includes Los Angeles Lakers part-owner Jim Buss.
In a press release, Brees said, “I am an avid pickleball player, fan and student of the game. The opportunity to be a part of the ownership group of the Mad Drops PC is something I’m extremely excited about, and I look forward to helping raise awareness around the incredible players and competitions in MLP, helping grow the sport of pickleball and fostering overall fan engagement.
“As a long-time professional athlete and competitor, myself, I look forward to working with the Mad Drops PC team in our relentless quest to win many championships in the years to come.”
MLP co-founder Zubin Mehta describes pickleball as “the fastest-growing and most accessible sport in America” and it is also being reported that Brees has thrown his hat in the ring to be part of Amazon’s broadcast team for next season’s games.