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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED OLUME 26, ISSUE 5 22 changed New Orleans' fortunes, both for the city and the Saints' franchise, by leading it to a Super Bowl win in early February, 2010. Nine years earlier at Purdue, he guided the Boilermakers to the Rose Bowl, needing a magical October 2000 run that included dramatic vic- tories over Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio State to give the Boilermakers a chance for a Big Ten championship. He was dubbed "The Fix-It Man" on the cover of a sports magazine after the win over the Buckeyes, when his late interception led to disaster, before he redeemed himself with a 64- yard game-winning touchdown to Seth Morales minutes later. Years have gone by, but Brees hasn't changed much. He is still a fixer. And he's still doing so at Purdue. Brees might not be able to directly influence the out- come of Purdue games anymore — he's 37 now, about to enter his 16th season in the NFL, 11th in New Orleans — but he can try to help the Boilermakers other ways. And Purdue needs a boost, after winning only six games in the last three seasons and having little Big Ten rele- vance since the end of the Joe Tiller Era eight years ago. Brees can be a catalyst toward recovery. The future NFL Hall of Famer has money, and perhaps more im- portantly, he has time, though not lots of it with four children, and significant influence. He put all of those to use April 15, when he, his wife Brittany and young family arrived in West Lafayette for a shorter-than-ex- pected trip to Purdue. Drew Brees had to fly back out the following day, before the start of Purdue's spring game, to attend the private funeral of former Saints teammate Will Smith, who had been shot and killed in New Orle- ans the previous week. But Brees was committed to coming to Purdue for as long as time permitted, because it's important to him. "Purdue has meant so much to me and my wife," Brees said. "I look back at everything I've had the good fortune to accomplish or be part of throughout my life and it all started here. "Who would have thought a Texas kid would come up to Purdue University? … But it was the best decision of my life to come here and to get the education I was able to get, from the Krannert School of Management. Met my wife Brittany, we have four beautiful children. "… And the opportunity to have a 15-year NFL career thus far and hopefully I've got quite a few left in me. I feel like I do. And I'm excited for this stage of my career as a player but also the platform. I think most important- ly the platform it's given me to really make a difference in a lot of different ways, in the community through our foundation, but also as we come back to Purdue and con- tinue to look around and watch the university grow and the facilities change." And that was the crux of the visit. Drew and Brittany are co-chairs of the National Lead- ership Circle, a Purdue group with a goal to back the Boilermaker program financially, with their own money and by generating additional funding. Other significant donors are part of the group, as well, like former Boiler- maker Ryan Kerrigan. The first step is the construction of the $65-million football performance complex, of which more than $20 million has already been raised, in- cluding an initial $1-million gift from Brees. The balance of the cost after 22 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED "You build a foundation. And I've watched Coach (Dar- rell) Hazell very closely over the last few years, and I feel like he's doing everything the right way. At this point, you just need to win. And we all understand that, we get it. We're in the business of winning, no matter what level you're at, high school, college, pro, it's the business of winning." — Saints quarterback Drew Brees "(Drew Brees) just is special, a special guy, who takes his leadership seriously. He is exactly who he rep- resents. He's not representing something and then is some- one else. That's who he is and that's pretty cool." — Former Boilermaker Keena Turner