If we assume Brees was legitimately planning to retire after the Pro Bowl....

Then I wonder who or what managed to convince him to give it one last run ?

On the other side of that coin, what was prompting him to strongly consider retirement in the first place? I remember Favre, after being asked about some of his last few seasons where he was wishy-washy on retirement, mentioning that he would end a season feeling all banged up and ready to make retirement official........but then a few months would go by and some healing would occur, which would bring back the itch to play. Maybe that's how Drew felt after the Vikings game ?

Maybe it was mental just as much as it was physical? Imagine having 2017 ripped away from him in the manner it was........only have 2018 say "hold my beer, I can one-up that".........only to put together another 13-3 season just to get bounced at home in a wild card game? And then having to mentally envision the grind of re-starting the process yet again...

Then there are some that think it was the Tom Brady factor. I'm not really sure I believe the whole "there was talk about Brady being a Saint, so suddenly Brees put retirement on hold" story that floated around a week or so ago (why would Bill Parcells have been the one to reach out to Payton about that on behalf of the Brady camp?)..........but it was a fun story, anyway. Probably will forever be told regardless of credibility, sort of like the legendary "you know there were actually 2 Ultimate Warriors in WWF, right? The first one died and Vince replaced him with somebody else shortly thereafter!" tale that probably still gets repeated somewhere.

I personally like to believe that Brees...........like Favre a decade-plus ago.........simply gave his body some time to heal, and realized that the window is very much open right now. If he were walking into a 2015 situation again at the age of 41, I imagine he'd have probably just retired. But this team, on paper, may very well be the deepest roster he's ever had at his disposal.

I actually hope his "I had every intention of retiring" story is 100% accurate. What a great story that would be if "I almmmmmooost quit for good" turned into holding up another Lombardi.