After completing my second section of reading in Brees's memoir, I feel that I have gained even more insight regarding the topic of adversity. In chapter four, Brees describes his prospects and outlook he had going into the 2001 NFL draft. Unfortunately for Drew, numerous teams that were interested in him decided to pass on him on draft day. He was drafted by the San Diego Chargers with the first pick of the second round. In addition, Brees states how the situation actually worked out well despite the pick being lower than what he expected. Brees describes his initial situation in San Diego in which he played the backup quarterback role to one of his good friends still today, Doug Flutie.
Furthermore, Brees also describes his situation with Brittany. He describes their trip to Europe which was a relaxing reprieve from Drew's transition to the NFL. On this trip, Drew proposes to Brittany in a clever and thoughtful manner. He described the situation as both memorable and seemingly perfect. Brees, afterwards, describes his situation with a new football coach in San Diego, Marty Schottenheimer. Brees writes on to describe several instances early in his career in which he played poorly in games and was pulled from those games. He especially notes a low point in 2003 in a game versus the Chicago game. Withe the team already struggling, Brees played poorly and his team lost the game to fall to an 1-7 record on the season. In addition, he failed to impress his former coach, whom coached for the Bears at the time. However, through the help of his wife Brittany, he was able to deal with the adversity well. A little later in his career, Brees had another opportunity to start. Unfortunately, he was benched once again in another game in which he played poorly. Conversely from the previous situation, Brees was back into the starting role for quarterback shortly. At the end of the fourth chapter, Brees tells about the time in his career when Chargers offensive coordinator, Cam Cameron, told him that San Diego was looking to pick up a new quarterback. The information helped to fuel Brees for his immediate future in the NFL.
In chapter five, Brees describes the new, unfamiliar situation he was in when the Chargers were going to get another quarterback. He knew that he had to improve his entire game in order to maintain his job as the team's starting quarterback. He worked extremely hard with several trainers and dietitians and also found new ways to improve his game. Brees writes on to describe the actual battle between him and the new quarterback in San Diego, Philip Rivers. The Chargers acquired Rivers in the draft in this particular year. Brees would go on to win the job in San Diego and earn the nickname PB, for Pro Bowl, in 2004. He led the team to a 12-4 record and went to the Pro Bowl, as predicted by a teammate of his.
After reading this section of Coming Back Stronger, I found even more adverse situations that people can overcome in life. Drew managed to overcome his major struggles early in his career. I truly cannot imagine the pressure he was under when he had to be benched many times early in his career. Personally, Brees reminded me of my personal life when he described possibly the lowest point in his football career. Basically, his life went way up from that particular point as he learned tremendously from the situation. When I was in eight grade, I had my heart set on winning conference in wrestling. I had trained hard all year and the year before. I was varsity the previous year and I felt that I could defeat everyone in my weight class in eighth grade. I had tremendous success early on, but in conference, I lost by one point in the final seconds with a trip to the finals on the line. I had never experienced a low quite like that moment in eighth grade. However, I believe the difficult circumstances that year prepared me better for the future. I now look at many areas of my life in which I improved in large part due to my past troubles in sports, like wrestling. In summary, I found several insightful points about hardships that hit home for me while reading this section of Coming Back Stronger.
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