Posted by Jeff Duncan, The Times-Picayune July 28, 2009 10:24AM

Drew Brees is a great quarterback but every once in awhile he makes a bad pass.

Off the field, he’s a terrific ambassador, not only for the organization, but for the NFL and city of New Orleans. That’s why he’s asked to represent various organizations on trips like the U.S.O. tour he went on earlier this summer to the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay.

Scott Threlkeld/The Times-Picayune
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees
has been open in his support for the U.S. military.

After the visit, Brees conducted several interviews to discuss the trip, including one with the Times-Picayune’s Mike Triplett and one with San Diego-based radio station, XX1090-AM.

I was on vacation at the time of the radio interview on July 10, but I’m surprised his comments about the controversial facility did not raise more eyebrows locally or nationally.

“I can say this after that experience — the worst thing we can do is shut that baby down, for a lot of reasons,” Brees said. “But I think there’s a big misconception as to how we are treating those prisoners; those detainees over there. They are being treated probably 10 times better than any prisoner in a U.S. prison.”

Brees made some other eye-opening statements:

“I mean, they’re allowed to call and write letters home, and receive letters and calls. They get five opportunities a day to pray, and they have arrows in the prison pointing towards where Mecca is. And the prison goes dead silent so these guys can have their religious time. They have rooms where they can watch movies and play Nintendo Wii. So I think that just goes ahead and says it right there.”

And:

“And you just talk to all the guards that are Army and Navy personnel, they’ll tell you stories about how these prisoners, they’ll be walking the cell blocks as they’re keeping an eye on these guys and they’ll be throwing the feces and urine in the faces of the guards as they walk by and the guards are not allowed to do anything. They’re not allowed to physically retaliate or do anything hardly to try to restrain these guys at all. These guys get away with whatever they want.”

I’m sure Brees accurately described the conditions at Gitmo during his visit. But clearly that wasn’t the case previously.

An 18-month investigation by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2006 charged U.S. officials with human rights violations against the prisoners and urged the U.S. to close the military prison in Cuba.

President Barack Obama announced in January plans to close the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base within a period of no later than one year and to prohibit cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in interrogations of detained individuals.

Brees’ comments flew under the radar but did resonate with some Saints fans on Canal Street Chronicles, a popular fan blog which covers the team. The link to the radio interview elicited these negative comments from Saints fans.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 6:15 am and is filed under Saints News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.