Brees sets records in Saints’ big win over Colts
Drew Brees became the NFL’s alltime leader in touchdown passes, throwing for four scores to lead the Saints to a 347 victory over Indianapolis in New Orleans on Monday night.
The scoring strike that broke Peyton Manning’s record of 539 career touchdown passes came in the third quarter, when Brees hit tight end Josh Hill for a 5yard score. Brees’ next pass in the game was the 541st scoring toss of his career, a 28yard TD to reserve QB and utility player Taysom Hill that put the Saints up 340.
Brees came into the game already holding NFL records for completions with 6,792 and yards passing with 72,577 — and built on those numbers by also setting a record for completion percentage in a game. He completed 29 of 30 passes — 96.7% — for 307 yards before being relieved by Teddy Bridgewater in the fourth quarter. That broke the mark Philip Rivers had held since completing 28 of 29 (96.6%) against Arizona last season.
The victory kept the Saints (113), who’d already won the NFC South, in the running with Seattle (113), the 49ers (113) and Green Bay (113) for one of the top two seeds in the NFC playoffs. The Colts (68) were eliminated from playoff contention after losing their fourth straight and sixth out of seven.
Gordon suspended: Josh Gordon’s troubles continued Monday as the Seattle wide receiver was suspended indefinitely by the NFL for violating the league’s drug policy again. Gordon tested positive for performanceenhancing drugs and “substances of abuse,” the league said in a statement. Gordon was reinstated by the NFL in August after having been suspended indefinitely in December 2018, missing the final three games of last season for the Patriots for violations of the league’s substanceabuse policy.
“My heart goes out to Josh having to face this again. The fact that he is up against it and all, it poses a great challenge to him,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said.
Helmet firm strapped: Around Thanksgiving, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and Seattle’s Russell Wilson received some news as unnerving as the sight of an allout blitz.
The quarterbacks and other investors in Vicis, the Seattlebased helmet maker, officially were informed that the company was running out of cash.
“Our employees are currently furloughed and we need to raise capital in order to continue operating or we may have no other option but to wind down all operations,” wrote Ralph Greene Jr., who became the chief executive just days before, the New York Times reported.