"Three years ago, when New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees became only the second quarterback in football history to throw for more than 5,000 yards in a season, he spoke with the first one to do so and the only one to ever throw for more than Brees, Dan Marino. The topic, understandably, was Marino's single-season yardage record of 5,084, which has stood since 1984.

"We talked about it after the '08 season," Brees recalled Thursday. "And at the time it was kind of just like, OK, we made our run at it, and the chances of that happening again are probably really, really slim.""