Saints Reportedly Tried to Sign Drew Brees and Philip Rivers to an Emergency Deal

COVID has hit the Saints hard this week.  They have nine players who are in the NFL's COVID-19 protocols, including quarterbacks Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemien.

Rookie quarterback Ian Book will get the call when New Orleans takes on the Dolphins on Monday.  But he wasn't their first choice.

The Saints reportedly reached out to both retired quarterbacks Drew Brees and Philip Rivers.  They instead ended up adding Blake Bortles to backup Book.

From CBS Sports:

The Saints, in their desperation, reportedly reached out to both Brees and Rivers to gauge their interest in potentially unretiring to suit up in New Orleans, per Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com. The attempts obviously didn't bear any fruit, and it appears Brees is particularly uninterested in stepping down from his shiny new broadcasting gig in an attempt to extend his already Hall of Fame resume.

Brees reportedly replied to the Saints, albeit respectfully, by sending a picture of himself golfing -- per Nick Underhill of WWLTV in New Orleans. In other words, the former face of the Saints is enjoying his retirement, and in a major way.

Why didn't Brees or Rivers sign an emergency deal?  My guess is they didn't want that Hall of Fame clock to restart, assuming it has started for both of them, for an emergency deal.

It would have made for an awesome story.