GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED OLUME 26, ISSUE 5 21
P R E S E N T S : L E G E N D D R E W B R E E S
Still Purdue's 'Fix-It Man'
Brees returns as program looks to past in building for future
BY KYLE CHARTERS
KCharters@GoldandBlack.com
Y
ears ago, Chukky Okobi was visiting Drew Brees
at his San Diego home, and the two NFL players
and former Purdue teammates were getting
ready to head out to tackle a busy schedule.
But there was a distraction. A Golden Tees arcade
game, like those that sit in sports bars across the coun-
try, was in one of the stalls of Brees' six-car garage.
And competitive nature took over.
"I'd never played it before, but I started beating him,"
Okobi said April 15 when he, Brees and nine other for-
mer Boilermakers-turned-Super Bowl winners were on
campus for the football performance complex ground-
breaking over spring game weekend. "We had to go to a
charity event — his charity event — and he's like, 'No,
we're not going anywhere,' until he starts coming back.
"This is the type of competitor he is, even with some-
thing as simple as a video game. This is a guy who, at
Purdue, stayed up all night doing homework and when
he was done with that, would come back to Mollenkopf
(to work out). It's not so much about talent — and Drew
has plenty of that — but his competitive spirit and the
way he's competed in life has led to his success on the
field and off the field."
That's one example.
But being Brees' protector for four years at Purdue,
Okobi's got a bunch more, all tales in which Brees' com-
petitiveness took over.
Others have their own stories, as well.
The football ones are nearly endless, like how he
Paul Sadler
Drew Brees has taken a lead role once again at Pur-
due, this time helping to spur fund-raising for the
new football performance facility being constructed
right now.