Canal Street Chronicles
Jonathon Vilma sits down with Kyle Odegard for an exclusive interview with SportsLens.
Former New Orleans Saints Pro Bowl LB Jonathan Vilma joined Arizona Cardinals insider Kyle Odegard for an exclusive interview with SportsLens to discuss a range of topics, including the buzz around the black and gold and some familiar faces.
With Brees returning to the booth for this season’s set of Christmas Day games—Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens—streaming exclusively on Netflix, his longtime teammate and current Fox Sports’ color analyst, Jonathan Vilma, shared his thoughts on Brees’ upcoming shot at redemption.
Vilma emphasized the amount of pressure that players of Brees’ stature are faced with when they begin their careers in front of the camera and shared some advice for his former quarterback: “But I would say one: the fans are always uber critical of the play by play when calling the games, right? So, if you know that they’re going to hang on to your every word whether it’s good or bad, you just go out and be relaxed and call it.”
When asked whether he feels Brees can address his weaknesses by reviewing the tape from his first stint on TV, Vilma pointed to the future first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer’s work ethic: “Drew, I know that he is a workaholic. I know he watched his tape 20 times over on how he wants to improve, etc. And so, what I see from Drew coming in the second time around, from whatever happened at NBC, I know he’s going to be very natural. I know he’s going to be much more relaxed. I know that he’s going to really just enjoy it.” He stressed the importance of the Super Bowl 44 MVP letting his unmatched football IQ lead the way: “If I’m Drew Brees, let that come out. Just go out, be natural, be relaxed. And look, if you flub something, move on, right? If you mess something up, who cares? Because it’s three hours of football. It’s meant to be fun. It’s not meant to be perfect. Just go out and enjoy it.”
Another quote from Vilma on Brees that Saints fans will enjoy: “...at the end of the day, there was nobody better than Drew and it may be a little biased, but there was nobody better than Drew at that quarterback position. And I know people reading will think it’s Tom Brady, but I don’t care, I’m biased!”
Vilma disagrees with the notion that a complete reset should have taken place following the departure of the two most prolific icons in franchise history, instead giving credit to the All-Pro-studded defense that was one of the league’s best at the time.
The general belief surrounding the Saints was that they were just a QB away from being contenders after Brees announced his retirement in 2021, but Vilma feels the two-sided...
