The knock came like everyone expected it would — but that didn’t make it any less emotional.
Drew Brees is officially a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer.
The former New Orleans Saints quarterback was announced as the headliner of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 during Thursday night’s “NFL Honors” ceremony, a moment that felt more like confirmation than surprise. Still, for Brees — and for an entire city that watched him help rebuild hope — it meant everything.
Brees is joined in the Class of 2026 by Roger Craig, Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinatieri, all names that defined an era of football. The Hall’s 50-member Selection Committee conducted its vote in January.
While Fitzgerald and Kuechly experienced a “reverse knock,” showing up to find a Hall of Famer waiting to deliver the news, Brees received the traditional visit at home — a quiet moment that marked the end of a journey few quarterbacks in league history can match.
That journey began in San Diego, where Brees arrived as the 32nd overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft. The early years were uneven, and his NFL future once felt uncertain. By 2004, he had flipped the narrative, earning AP Comeback Player of the Year and his first Pro Bowl nod.
Then came New Orleans — and everything changed.
From 2006 on, Brees didn’t just put up numbers. He lifted a franchise and a city. He threw for at least 4,388 yards in 11 straight seasons, topped 5,000 yards five times and routinely rewrote the league’s record book. More importantly, he became the face of belief in a city desperate for it.
His crowning moment came in Super Bowl XLIV, when he led the Saints to the franchise’s first championship and walked away as Super Bowl MVP — a memory etched permanently into New Orleans sports history.
Brees finished his career with 80,358 passing yards and 571 touchdowns, both ranking second all-time. But his legacy can’t be captured by numbers alone. It lives in packed Superdome crowds, in a Lombardi Trophy, and in the way he carried himself when it mattered most.
Now, that legacy has a permanent home in Canton.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026 will be enshrined on Saturday, Aug. 8, but for Saints fans, the verdict was delivered long ago: Drew Brees was always a Hall of Famer.
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