Preparing for UW and 2001 Rose Bowl, Drew Brees Was Thinking of WSU

The NFL icon retires after two decades, after dressing like a Cougar and losing to the Huskies.

Drew Brees was humored that someone found out about his one-time football obsession.

Twenty years ago, while preparing to face the University of Washington in the Rose Bowl, the Purdue quarterback stood in the west end zone of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after practice and happily talked about the hat.

Brees, who retired from the NFL on Sunday, proudly owned a Washington State baseball cap. 

Back then, he wore it wherever and whenever he wanted. 

He might even still have it.

Brees and his family had traveled to Seattle on vacation to see Mount Rainier and Victoria, British Columbia, plus Ken Griffey Jr., when this young quarterback from Austin, Texas, spotted the Cougars paraphernalia in a store.

Drew Bledsoe was his quarterback hero back then. They shared a name and position. 

Why not Wazzu?

He bought the souvenir.

"I remember seeing him in a bowl game and I thought he was a great player," Brees said of Bledsoe, the NFL's top overall draft pick in 1993. "We had the same first name. I kind of identified with him. I know it sounds kind of stupid."

Dumber yet was WSU's response after the Brees family contacted the then Pac-10 school to let it know that Drew wanted to play there. The Cougars summarily waved off this quarterback legend in the making.

"I think it was obvious that someone said, 'We don't have a scholarship for you,' " said Brees, who as a 6-footer, if that, was at least six inches shorter than Bledsoe. "I know I was interested in Washington State."

Texas and Texas A&M passed on him, too.

Brees strongly considered going to Kentucky and North Carolina before Joe Tiller took over as the Purdue coach and came looking for an able throwing quarterback, and not necessarily a tall body.

Tiller, who died in 2017, didn't permit his Boilermakers players to wear other college gear in the athletic facilities in West Lafayette, Indiana, but he made an exception for Brees and his WSU hat.

"Normally, no other hat or shirt could be worn in the athletic facilities, just Purdue stuff," Brees said. "They let me wear that hat because they all coached there."

Tiller, in fact, spent two tours at WSU as an assistant coach, and many of his Purdue coaches worked in Pullman, too. 

Brees might have been a Bledsoe admirer, but he was named after a former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, Drew Pearson. 

He gained much of his football acumen from his grandfather, Ray Akins, one of Texas' all-time winningest high school football coaches. 

Brees played his final college game in the 2001 Rose Bowl against Washington, where he lost 34-24 to Marques Tuiasosopo and Company. He had a decent day, completing 23 of 39 passes for 275 yards and a touchdown. It wasn't nearly enough to beat the Huskies.

Had that cherished Cougar hat worked its magic and brought him to the Palouse, he would have faced the UW four times instead of just once. He would have played for Mike Price, not Joe Tiller, and against Jim Lambright and Rick Neuheisel teams.

Imagine Drew Brees, wearing the crimson and gray, and showing up as a continuous presence in the Apple Cup, goading and testing the Huskies.  

WSU surely would have sold a lot more of those hats.