By all accounts last year's inaugural Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Preps awards banquet was a huge success.
More than 300 high school athletes and coaches were honored, and Peyton Manning was a sensational speaker.
A few months ago the committee for this year's banquet met to discuss finding another speaker who had the same drawing power as Manning, and it didn't take long for New Orleans Saints quarterback and all around good person Drew Brees' name to come up.
There was one small catch, and it had nothing to do with money. Brees doesn't do many speaking engagements. In the off season he's very busy with his foundation, which has donated more than $17 million since its inception to various causes, and he's a family man with a wife and three sons.
When he found out the event honors high school athletes, he agreed almost immediately to be in Little Rock for the June 7 banquet.
Keith Jackson and David Bazzel will be the emcees, and before going any further, there are only a handful of $75 tickets left for sale. There aren't many tables at $1,200 remaining, either. Most likely everyone who bought a ticket or table last year did so when they went on sale this year.
The event starts at 6:30 p.m., and it is in the Wally Allen Ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center.
Brees did have one request. He asked to be allowed to deliver a personal message, and who wouldn't want to hear a personal story from the 2009 Super Bowl MVP? Brees completed 32 passes in that game as the Saints beat Manning and the favored Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, for their first and only Super Bowl title.
Not bad for a guy who as a free agent was told that the Miami Dolphins medical team had told team officials not to sign him because of shoulder problems. Brees had torn the labrum in his throwing shoulder in the final game of the 2005 season while playing for the San Diego Chargers, but noted surgeon Dr. James Andrew performed arthroscopic surgery and Dr. Saby Szajowitz treated him for rotator cuff damage.
The Dolphins instead traded for Daunte Culpepper.
The Saints' doctors cleared Brees, and he was signed to a contract that guaranteed him $10 million the first year and $12 million in the second year. Later he signed a $100 million contract with $60 million guaranteed.
It's easy to see why money wasn't a concern when it came to speaking engagements.
In his eight seasons with the Saints, Brees has thrown for 38,733 yards and 283 touchdowns. Not bad for a guy not fit enough to play for the Dolphins, who have gone 53-75 with one winning season in the past eight years, while the Saints are 80-48 with Brees as their starting quarterback.
Saying he is a beloved figure in New Orleans would be like saying you can find some decent Cajun food there.
Last season he surpassed the 50,000-yard mark faster than any quarterback in NFL history, doing it in just 183 games. He also extended his record of throwing at least 30 touchdowns in a season to six seasons.
Still, he is noted as much for his work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and for his work with cancer patients and rebuilding playgrounds for children.
He sponsors chapters of his fraternity, Sigma Chi, that work with Habitat for Humanity to build homes in the New Orleans community. He also was grand marshal during of Mardi Gras parade, and there aren't many honors bigger than that in the Big Easy.
Saying he stays busy in his adopted hometown is an understatement, but next month he is going to take some personal time to come to central Arkansas and help honor more than 300 student athletes and coaches with his personal story.
Sports on 05/14/2014