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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 26, Digital 5

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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.

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