New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees
Media Availability
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Opening Statement: "Baby girl. We have the name; it's not on the birth certificate yet, so I'm not going to say it yet. She's seven pounds, seven ounces…20 inches long…born at 7:43 last night. Britt and her are happy and healthy. Everybody is doing great. It just melted my heart to watch her born last night. I actually got to take the snap, so to speak, and catch her on the way out. That's a memory I'll have forever. She's already got daddy wrapped around her middle finger and she's less than 24 hours old. We're excited."
How excited are the boys to have a little sister?
"The older two are definitely really excited. The younger one, Callan, who just turned two – he's in a big 'Mama' phase right now. Anything that is diverting her attention away from him is probably not something he's going to be a fan of right now. They're all really, really excited. We've obviously been talking about it for a long time, even going back to when Brittany first got pregnant and we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. We were always asking them, 'Do you want another brother or a little sister?' They all said baby sister. They got their wish."
How overwhelming is the level of support that you and the family have gotten on social media from all the fans?
"It's awesome. They're all New Orleans babies. New Orleans will always have a special place in our hearts and theirs. This is their birthplace, this is where they're growing up. All that is awesome. It just goes to show that the relationship between us and the fans goes well beyond just the playing field or what we do in the Superdome every Sunday. I'd say that is most unique. Across all professional sports, I don't know if it's like that any other place."
She timed her arrival pretty good, didn't she?
"Had I known she was going to hold off until 7:43 last night, I could've made it to practice and got some work done. I was there, supportive as I could be. Obviously I'm not the one that's having to sustain the contractions and everything else…I'm just giving some rah-rah speeches along the way. I was just chomping at the bit many times, just pacing back and forth in the room and chomping at the bit waiting to see baby girl."
You're a veteran in this category. Any advice for dads out there? Does it get easier?
"Regardless, you're in way over your head. As prepared as you think you might be – you can read all the books you want, you can ask for all the advice you want – but until you see it for yourself and it happens to yourself, there's nothing like it. It's the greatest thing in the world. It's God's greatest gift, no question, boys or girls. To have four healthy babies, three boys and a girl, that was kind of our ideal scenario. That's back when Brittany and I were first married, we talked about what we wanted, how many kids, and all that. It was three boys and then the girls. When daddy can't be around, there's plenty of built-in protection. That was the design."
Was the naming process easy or difficult?
"We've had four names kind of narrowed down for about the last three months. I think that got narrowed down to two this past week. We wanted to see her and spend time with her and see if we could feel that personality. She looks exactly like what we're going to name her. I'm just going to wait until it is official. It's not on the birth certificate yet, unless my wife has gone ahead and done that without me being there."
