re: Dispelling a myth: Saban/Brees/Dolphins

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well 6 doctors evaluated Brees. what if 6/6 said his shoulder was fricked? 5/6? 4/6? half?

Saban had the ultimate say, but he was making a decision based on data and the word is, the data said "don't sign him"

the Saints were in a different position and were very desperate

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I’m not arguing whether he made a good decision at the time, just that he made the decision. I’ve heard countless times that Saban wanted to sign Brees but was overruled by the doctors.

And you would think those same doctors were preaching caution about Culpepper, coming off majory knee surgery, when he relied so much on his athleticism.

So 6 doctors believed Culpeper would recover to his same form vs Brees, yup don't blame him for listening to the experts in their field

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SlowFlowPro

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If you're going to be pedantic about the media reporting saying "guarantee" you need to also be criticizing Nick Saban for saying the doctors didn't let him sign Drew Brees.

And yes, Saban said that the doctors ruled and NO ONE could do anything about it:
Yahoo Sports article (cached)

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"We chose Drew Brees," he told LeBatard. "I've never ever talked about this publicly. That's the guy we made the first offer to. A lot of players know this. There was a lot of loyalty in the organization and players never talked about it."

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"We thought Drew Brees was an outstanding player and that's who we made the first offer to," Saban said. "Quite frankly, you know, he didn't pass the physical with our organization so we had to go in another direction and there was nothing any of us could do about that."

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History-Making Call: Doctor played pivotal role in Brees' Saints career

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This is Dr. Tim Finney, Saints team physician from 1991 to 2010. If the Saints were going to sign Brees, Finney had to be the one to pass his physical. He vividly remembers the initial conversation about Brees at the NFL Combine in 2006 in Indianapolis.

“The trainer came in and said, ‘Doc, we’re looking at a new free agent quarterback.' And I immediately said, 'Please don’t tell me it’s Drew Brees’ because I knew the devastating injury he went through,” Finney said. “He said, ‘We’re looking at Drew,’ and I said, ‘Aw geez.’”

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“I immediately when we got home from Indianapolis, I looked up the injury, watched film of the injury, basically watched video of the surgery, called Jim Andrews on the surgery,” Finney said. “So I was able to evaluate all of that by the time we left Indianapolis and got home. But I was really skeptical that he could not come back from that injury as most of the doctors were thinking.”

The tables started to turn when Finney got Brees in front of him to actually take the physical about nine weeks after his surgery.

"He had already regained his range of motion, so that was good, and I really looked at that and was the first thing you checked off the list that the motion was back,” Finney said. “Once you get your motion back from this kind of surgery, then it’s all strength training.”

And Dr. Finney said what finally sold him wasn’t just the physical rehab but the mental make-up of Brees.

“It’s amazing when you talked to him how confident he was in coming back,” Finney said. “He just gave you that impression that he would rehab to the fullest and get everything back. My initial report still said he had a long way to go and we still have to check in on him periodically.”

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While I'm sure there were some fears in the Dolphins organization, I'm not sure that was the entire thing. I think they decided to game the situation a little hoping Brees would rather go to Miami for less money than New Orleans was offering.

I will say this, if Miami had committed to the same terms (even the 1st terms) as New Orleans, Brees would have gone to Miami.

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I’ve heard countless times that Saban wanted to sign Brees but was overruled by the doctors.

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Saban definitely lied about that one.

Dolphins fans would probably say it's not even the biggest lie he told from that time period

Right

I mean even on its surface, the very notion of Nick fricking Saban wanting a guy and letting a bunch of doctors overrule him is ridiculous.

Seems like semantics

Regardless who had the decision making ability, it was heavily influenced by the opinion of said 6 doctors.

I don't think Saban has lost much sleep over it, nor do I think this thread really added anything to clear the situation up...

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If you're going to be pedantic about the media reporting saying "guarantee" you need to also be criticizing Nick Saban for saying the doctors didn't let him sign Drew Brees.

And yes, Saban said that the doctors ruled and NO ONE could do anything about it:

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oh you're saying Saban, Mr. "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach" bends the truth for PR?

He listened to the doctors and took what he believed the safest approach. I'm still not sure how you figure this is important

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He listened to the doctors and took what he believed the safest approach. I'm still not sure how you figure this is important

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Well, 15 years later and people are still talking about it. Saw a bunch of Dolphins fans on twitter talking about it yesterday. Seen it talked about multiple times here. Lot of people think Saban wasn’t allowed to sign Brees, which isn’t true. That’s all.

Who knows if Brees ever touches his numbers with Saban as his coach too. Drew is the machine and magbe the best ever at throwing a football, but he had Sean Payton helping.

Saban just recently caught up offensively in the college game. What makes anyone think he would have done that in the nfl fifteen years ago ?