{"id":754554,"date":"2026-02-15T20:32:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T20:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/754554\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T20:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T20:32:22","slug":"nfl-legend-drew-brees-says-he-grabbed-threw-saints-coach-out-of-huddle-while-defending-carl-nicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/754554\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Legend Drew Brees Says He Grabbed, Threw Saints Coach Out of Huddle While Defending Carl Nicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drew Brees stepped in for his rookie teammate back in 2008.That moment helped spark a lasting bond between them.He\u2019s still passing that influence on to the next generation.<\/p>\n

Drew Brees had one non-negotiable rule: his huddle was his kingdom. One Saints coach learned that lesson the hard way after trying to single out a struggling rookie. Taking a trip down memory lane, Brees recalls a practice in the Louisiana heat, where former New Orleans Saints guard Carl Nicks was bent over in the huddle, trying to catch his breath. That\u2019s when Offensive Line Coach Doug Marrone stepped in and was all over the rookie. The quarterback ended up doing something no player ever does to their coach.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m stepping up into the huddle again to call a play, and Carl is just kind of bent over, just sucking air,\u201d Brees said on the New Heights podcast. \u201cMarone, just to kind of make a point, he goes into the huddle to grab Nicks to like, you know, stand him up. And I don\u2019t know what came over me, but like, I just have a rule that when I step in the huddle, it\u2019s my huddle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want all eyes on me,\u201d Brees went on to say. \u201cI\u2019m leading this. And so when Marone stepped into the huddle, I didn\u2019t even think about it. I just reacted. I grabbed Doug Marone, and I threw him out of the huddle. And I said, I got him. And I looked at Nicks, and I was going to kind of help him up and be like, come on, big fella, let\u2019s go, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Coaches aren\u2019t usually escorted out of a huddle by their own players, but Brees understood the pressure Nicks was under. The Saints\u2019 LG, Jamar Nesbit, had been suspended to begin the season for violating the league\u2019s substance policy, so Nicks was tasked with protecting a franchise quarterback from day one.<\/p>\n

After the incident, Brees remembered Nicks straightening up, chest out, telling him, in so many words, nobody would touch him as long as he was there, forming the ideal QB-OL bond.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo we drafted Carl Nicks out of Nebraska, like fifth round. It was a steal because he was one of the most giant human beings you\u2019ve ever seen, right? Like 6\u20194\u2033, 360 or something,\u201d Brees recalled.<\/p>\n

The belief paid off, as Nicks played all 16 games as a rookie, and Brees was sacked just 13 times while throwing for 5,069 yards and 34 touchdowns that season. Over the next three years, Nicks became a consistent starter, starting every game in 2010 and 2011, and recognition followed.<\/p>\n

Nicks\u2019 body of work earned him two Pro Bowl selections, a consensus first-team All-Pro nod in 2011, and second-team All-Pro honors in 2010. During Nicks\u2019 four seasons in New Orleans, Brees threw for 19,553 yards and 147 touchdowns, and the Saints<\/a> captured the Super Bowl following the 2009 campaign.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t the first time that players and coaches from the same team have gotten involved in an altercation. For example, during a 2025 playoff game, Texans defensive back Kris Boyd shoved special teams coach Frank Ross after a tense sequence on a kickoff. There was another incident involving Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon, who shoved running back Emari Demercado after a costly fumble. However, cases where a player is protecting their teammate by shoving a coach are few and far between.<\/p>\n

As for Nicks, he eventually\u00a0left for a five-year, $47.5 million deal with the Buccaneers<\/a>, but injuries shortened his career, and his career effectively ended two seasons later. But for everything he achieved in that short while, what happened in that 2008 practice certainly played a part, and Nicks wasn\u2019t the last rookie to benefit from Brees\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

That instinct to protect and mentor his teammates, even physically removing a coach from the huddle, defined Brees\u2019s leadership style, a style that continues to influence young Saints players even in his retirement, as rookie quarterback Tyler Shough recently discovered.<\/p>\n

Brees\u2019 leadership continues to shape Saints rookies<\/p>\n

Five years removed from retirement and now a Hall of Famer<\/a>, Drew Brees is still helping out the rookies in New Orleans, and this time, it was Tyler Shough who felt the impact.<\/p>\n

Shough didn\u2019t win AP Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, but he gave New Orleans Saints fans something steady to build on and something to look forward to. He made it clear that Brees played a pivotal role in all his success this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s awesome. He\u2019s an incredible mentor because of just who he is on and off the field,\u201d Shough said. \u201cHe\u2019s the pinnacle of being a quarterback, in my opinion. He was big for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Brees\u2019 advice that inspired the rookie to be better every single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to talk to him during the season when I was still a backup about his process and, \u2018How do you attack each day?\u2019 It really helped me when I got my opportunity of just going out there, not making anything different and just attacking,\u201d Shough added.<\/p>\n

The rookie even revealed the biggest thing he took away from Brees\u2019 lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was you have to treat each day and each week with your process the same, regardless of who you\u2019re playing, the outcome, what your role is,\u201d Shough remarked. \u201cThat way, whenever you\u2019re out there, the moment doesn\u2019t feel too big. I feel like that really resonated with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effect of Brees\u2019s mentorship was evident when Shough took over for the struggling Spencer Rattler, guiding the team to a 5-4 record while throwing for 2,384 yards and 10 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Whether by physically defending them in the huddle or by offering veteran wisdom, Drew Brees\u2019s legacy in New Orleans is defined by his commitment to protecting and elevating his teammates, a standard that continues to resonate long after his retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drew Brees stepped in for his rookie teammate back in 2008.That moment helped spark a lasting bond between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[27074,6888,115,3068,247,1317,357,921,882,6347,6421,1386,11193,93,8268,3066,346,739,3057,2543,3069,707,7,6351,1134,853,28583,3080,9362,6354,3072,723,6352,9364,9350,9351,805,4005,44629,108002,22388,1280,6,144,3070,9358,520,9348,319,3078,28310,2964,9029,11345,3063,9,9363,3071,8138,3065,426,24,1402,3081,7956,3061,5214,4004,22589,30359,3052,3064],"class_list":{"0":"post-754554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-27074","9":"tag-6888","10":"tag-afc","11":"tag-am","12":"tag-american","13":"tag-an","14":"tag-and","15":"tag-arrowhead","16":"tag-at","17":"tag-auf","18":"tag-before","19":"tag-between","20":"tag-brees","21":"tag-by","22":"tag-card","23":"tag-chefs","24":"tag-chiefs","25":"tag-city","26":"tag-der","27":"tag-drew","28":"tag-feld","29":"tag-field","30":"tag-football","31":"tag-foto","32":"tag-from","33":"tag-game","34":"tag-geha","35":"tag-herren","36":"tag-icon","37":"tag-ikone","38":"tag-im","39":"tag-in","40":"tag-indem","41":"tag-jan","42":"tag-januar","43":"tag-january","44":"tag-kansas","45":"tag-karte","46":"tag-lenkte","47":"tag-meldet","48":"tag-mo","49":"tag-nbc","50":"tag-nfl","51":"tag-on","52":"tag-pfeilspitze","53":"tag-photo","54":"tag-pittsburgh","55":"tag-pittsburgher","56":"tag-playoff","57":"tag-quer","58":"tag-rangen","59":"tag-reports","60":"tag-scott","61":"tag-sidelines","62":"tag-spiel","63":"tag-sports","64":"tag-sportswire","65":"tag-stadion","66":"tag-stadium","67":"tag-stadt","68":"tag-steelers","69":"tag-the","70":"tag-und","71":"tag-usa","72":"tag-von","73":"tag-vor","74":"tag-wild","75":"tag-wilden","76":"tag-wintern","77":"tag-winters","78":"tag-x0x","79":"tag-zwischen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}