Ex-Saints QB Drew Brees has to throw left-handed after 2005 shoulder injury: ‘My right arm doesn’t work’
Drew Brees isn’t going to try to mount a comeback.
At this point, he revealed Tuesday, that’s just not physically possible.
The former longtime New Orleans Saints quarterback and future Hall of Famer told ESPN’s Evan Cohen this week that he can’t throw a ball with his right arm anymore due to a major shoulder injury that he dealt with back in 2005. While there might have been a few teams that put out “a feeler or two” after he first retired in 2021, Brees is finished playing for good.
“Look, I’ll let you in on a little fact. I don’t throw with my right arm anymore. My right arm doesn’t work,” Brees said on ESPN Radio. “So when I throw in the backyard right now, I throw left-handed.”
Brees went down with his shoulder injury in 2005 when he was playing with the San Diego Chargers. He took a hit while trying to recover a fumble late that season and ended up completely dislocating his right shoulder and partially tearing both his labrum and rotator cuff.
That injury nearly ended his career and required major surgery, something that later scared the Miami Dolphins away from signing him the next year.
“[That injury] put me on the fast track to a degenerative shoulder and all kinds of arthritic changes and stuff like that,” he said. “So no, I don’t throw with my right arm anymore.”
Brees instead landed with the Saints, where he returned to the field and spent the last 15 years of his NFL career until retiring after the 2020 campaign. He won a Super Bowl in New Orleans, was named to 13 All-Pro teams and led the league in passing yards seven times — including twice in his first three seasons with the Saints. Brees threw for 80,358 yards in his career, which is second all-time only to former New England Patriots great Tom Brady.
Brees, who is now 44, will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026.
Brees is now a part owner of a professional pickleball team and was talking with ESPN to promote an event at which he played alongside John McEnroe. Thankfully, he said, his shoulder injury isn’t hindering him there.
“I can play pickleball because it’s below the waist,” he said, “but anything above my shoulder I have a hard time with.”
