Brees: NFL's Single-Elimination Trap Cost Saints More Rings

0:00It's April 5th. This is NFL News Today, your AI-powered source for everything NFL. Drew Breeze might be retired from the NFL, but he's still chewing on those near misses from his 20-year career with the Saints. He won just one Super Bowl back in 2009, but on a reason podcast, he named three or four other squads he swears was stacked enough to. Hoist the Lombardi trophy. Breeze points the finger partly at the league's do-or-die playoff setup, where one bad game ends at all. Four Breeze rolled into New Orleans in 2006. The Saints were perennial losers with barely any playoff wins in nearly 40 years. He flipped the script quick, grabbing seven division titles, nine playoff victories, and three trips to the NFC Championship game through 2000, 20. Fans and Breeze alike feel the sting from those gut-wrenching losses that kept more rings out of reach. Think about it. The breakers like the 2011 divisional round flopped to San Francisco after a 13-3 season or the two, 2017 Minneapolis Miracle, where Minnesota snatched victory in the final seconds.

1:06Then there was 2018's infamous no-call on pass interference against the Rams in the NFC title game, robbing them of a Super Bowl. Shot, in 2020's divisional defeat to Tampa Bay, the eventual champs. Breeze stayed elite into his 40s, but those single elimination traps kept derailing the runs. He contrasts it with baseball or basketball series, where you get multiple chances to bounce back. No such luck in football. Looking back, Breeze figures one play flipped, and any of those years could have snowballed into multiple titles, but that's the brutal beauty of the game.