There's no shortage of notable NFL stars - both past and present - who genuinely appreciate America's fastest-growing sport.

Names like Nick Foles, Golden Tate, Tom Brady, Cam Newton, Bijan Robinson, Larry Fitzgerald, Donald Driver, T.J. Watt, Tim Tebow, Rob Gronkowski, Gardner Minshew, Gehrig Dieter, Ryan Finley, Marcellus Wiley, and Jake Elliott are on that list.

But with Super Bowl LIX being held in New Orleans this year, former Saints quarterback Drew Brees is clearly the first athlete who comes to mind.

Along with being a part of the Los Angeles Mad Drops (MLP) ownership group, Brees also joined forces with The Picklr as an ambassador, investor, and franchise owner.

He participates in the annual NOLA Pickle Fest benefiting the Brees Dream Foundation as well.

“During COVID is, obviously, when I think when pickleball exploded just because everybody’s stuck at home with nothing to do. They just start lining courts in their driveways, in the street with their neighbors. Pickleball became my wife and my escape at the end of the day, when you’ve been homeschooling four kids and you’re just at your wit’s end. It’s like, ‘Let’s just go outside. Let’s take a deep breath. Let’s just kind of hit the ball back and forth and just talk. Talk about the day. Kind of just recap, you know? So, it became a little bit of our therapy,” said Brees, during a recent interview with WGN-TV.

It wasn't long before the 2009 Super Bowl champion and MVP was addicted to hitting the 20x44 on a regular basis. 

And the rest is history.

“I love the sport because it is something that everyone can do. Like, literally you and I could go out on the street in New Orleans right now and we could just pick two random people and grab four paddles and say, ‘Hey, let’s have a game.’ And we could go out there and we can have fun, right? Think — is there any other sport where you could do that? No. Any other sport requires some level of maybe experience or athleticism, but pickleball is just very inviting,” explained Brees, who opened entertainment hub Pickle N Pins in Metairie, LA this past October.

The third edition of NOLA Pickle Fest is scheduled for August at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

It features three divisions of round-robin play: women’s doubles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles for skill levels 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, and 5.0+.

“We’ve got a young girl, nine years old, playing. We’ve got an older woman, 92 years old, playing. So, I mean, think about that age spread, right? They’re on the court at the same time playing with each other or against each other. And it’s fun,” noted Brees.

The Big Easy couldn't ask for a better pickleball representative than Brees, who's doing everything in his power to grow the game and spread the word.

The 13-time Pro Bowler is a true friend of the sport.

“New Orleans gets in your blood pretty quick. I was told this right when my wife and I came on our first visit to New Orleans – ‘If you love New Orleans, it’ll love you back. If you hate it, it’ll hate you back.’ But we chose to love New Orleans and New Orleans absolutely loved us back.”

Brees has proudly been serving as an ambassador for the New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee, supporting and promoting Louisiana and the Greater New Orleans area ahead of the most watched event in sports.