Drew Brees has often shared how his faith played an integral role in his career in the NFL. Now retired, Brees has partnered with a faith-based app to create a content series of motivational prayers and bedtime Bible stories.
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Pray.com, a popular app that helps more than 10 million people incorporate prayer and Christian content into their lives, announced this week that it has partnered with Brees on exclusive content for its platform.
“Pray.com comes with me wherever I go,” Brees said in a news release. “Through both unbelievable trials and triumphs, prayer has been my consistent, go-to secret weapon.”
The new series, called “Faith and Football,” kicks off this week to coincide with the start of the 2021 NFL season. Brees’ content will be accompanied by 32 prayers, one for each NFL team, by Pastor Jeff T. Osborne. Listeners can access the content and pray for their team before every game by using the Pray app or joining the conversation on social media by using the hashtag “#faithfulfans.”
“For both my friends in the NFL and everyday folks, prayer can help lift up all of us,” Brees said. “Pray understands the power of purpose and lasting and meaningful contributions to the community. I am proud to partner with them.”
This will be the first season since 2005 that Brees won’t be suiting up for the Saints. He announced his retirement in March after 20 years in the NFL and what will likely end up as a Hall of Fame career.
After starting with the San Diego Chargers, Brees joined the Saints in 2006 — less than a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and much of the Gulf region. Brees said God was a big reason he decided to sign with the Saints.
“We were just looking at the sheer devastation and just saying, ‘I’m not going to trust what I see with my eyes here, because my eyes are telling me not to come here. And yet, my heart, my soul, the Lord is telling me that this is our calling,’” Brees said in 2018 in a video for Sports Spectrum. “It’s not about just coming to play football and be a part of the resurgence of a football team or an organization, but it’s about the resurrection, rebirth of a city and we can be a part of that.”
That year, along with first-year head coach Sean Payton, Brees and the Saints responded from a 3-13 record the previous year to go 10-6 and advance to the NFC championship game. Just three years later, Brees led the Saints their first and only Super Bowl championship, and he was named the game’s MVP.
He retired as the all-time leader in career passing touchdowns (later surpassed by Tom Brady), career pass completions, career completion percentage (later surpassed by Deshaun Watson), and regular-season passing yards. He set or tied several other records, including most consecutive games with a touchdown pass and most touchdown passes in a game.
Brees said when he retired, “I am only retiring from playing football. I am not retiring from New Orleans. This is not goodbye, rather a new beginning. Now my real life’s work begins!” He is helping the city rebuild after Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm, struck the city in late August.
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Pray.com said it’s happy to be partnering with Brees for this new line of content.
“At Pray, we hope to connect our listeners to something greater, through the power of prayer,” said Steve Gatena, co-founder and CEO of Pray.com, in the statement. “We are thrilled to partner with Drew who has shown he is an exceptional human being both on and off the field. At the start of this NFL season and beyond, we hope to be along for the ride for both players and fans.”
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