Peyton Manning, Pierre Garcon, Mark Sanchez, Rex Ryan, Adrian Peterson, and Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre.

The New Orleans Saints are going to the Super Bowl for the first time in their history, and yet no one is talking about Drew Brees. With a win in the Super Bowl, many think that Brees is a few more good years away from solidifying a Hall of Fame career. Drew Brees has been flying under the radar for a lot of his career, but I'm sure that's the way he's liked it so far because it's gotten him to the Super Bowl.

It's ironic that he's heading to Miami to play for a championship because that was a city heavily involved in a crossroads of his career.

In 2001, Brees led Purdue to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1967. Despite being completely overmatched, he kept the Boilermakers in the game before ultimately losing by 10. Later that year, he was drafted by San Diego. His first great year with the Chargers was, ironically, in 2004, the year they drafted Phillip Rivers. Rivers might have started right away if he hadn't held out throughout camp. Instead, Brees got the start and played great. San Diego slapped the franchise tag on him so they could keep him for one more year, but at the end of that season, he suffered a shoulder injury on a late hit.

He went into free agency as damaged goods after shoulder surgery. The Dolphins and Saints both needed a quarterback. Miami seemed like a perfect match, but Nick Saban's crew didn't want to gamble with a guy coming off major surgery, so they passed.

(So Saban not only passed on Drew Brees in Miami, but ran up the score on the Texas Longhorns in the national championship game. Man, I hate that guy.)

So instead, Brees signed with a New Orleans team coming off a season where their city was destroyed and they weren't able to play a regular season game in their home stadium.

He immediately led the Saints to playoffs, but had less success the next two seasons despite coming up just short of the NFL single-season passing record last season.

But this year was different. Despite the one-dimensional offense that has plagued the Saints despite their best efforts (like drafting Reggie Bush), Brees made it work by throwing the highest passing percentage of his career (over .700), having the best touchdown-to-interception ratio of his career (34-11), and having the best passer rating of his career (109.6).

It wasn't good enough to nab him the MVP, though, because Peyton Manning is playing out of his mind considering he only had two reliable pass-catcehrs coming into this year (Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne) and the running game wouldn't give him much either. And all of this under a new head coach.

Five quarterbacks threw for more yards than he did this year and some of them got more attention than he did despite their team's records: Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Schaub, and Manning.

And then there was Brett Favre, who hogged the spotlight for much of the season as, statistically, he played better than he ever had. With top receivers, a solid line, and three solid backs, he was set up for one last run at another title. It brought him to New Orleans, where the nightmare of big-game disappointment repeated itself. On the first play of the game, he was floored by a big hit and it didn't stop the rest of the game. He was never sacked, but he was battered and beaten after the game.

It's no wonder he tried to make a tough throw that resulted in the last interception of the game and ruined a shot at a field goal try for a Minnesota win. He had room to run, but he had taken so many hits in the game already, one more might have done him in. That's why you can't blame Brett Favre for this loss. Sure, he threw two interceptions, but he also threw for over 300 yards and wasn't the one fumbling the ball constantly. (One was credited to him only because he was the last player with full possession. The exchange was Peterson's fault.)

But look at the way Brees played in a game where he faced almost as much pressure. He didn't blow anybody away with his stats (17-31 for 197 yards), despite throwing three TD passes. But as Ben Hogan once said, "It's not about how good your good shots are, it's how good your bad shots are." And the worst Brees did was overthrow some receivers. No interceptions in a game where turnovers were the story. He played smart against one of the best defensive units in the league, one that held the Cowboys to just 3 points, and that's why he'll have a great chance against Indianapolis on a neutral field in Miami.

There are only two teams left and he leads one of them. You can't fly under the radar and be ignored as the quarterback of a Super Bowl team. But few will expect him to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the Saints matchup with the Colts. With another championship, Manning will be in the conversation among the greatest of all time and can finally start building the case that he is better than his rival Tom Brady. The light will shine brightest on him leading up to the big game as Brees will enter as the underdog.

But that's just fine with him. He's spent his whole career proving people wrong about him and his team. And on Super Bowl Sunday, he'll get another chance, perhaps to silence them for good.

Next time: Classless Vikings redux