It's worth noting that Brees signed a six-year, $60 million contract with the Saints. Sometimes he spends that money shopping. Up and down Canal Street, right outside the French Quarter, [there's] some good shopping. You find more traditional stores, your Saks Fifth Avenue and your Brooks Brothers and that kind of thing, at the Shops at Canal Place. If you want eclectic, fun clothing stores, you go to Magazine Street, which is in Uptown. There are a lot of local stores there. If you want antiques, you have to go to Royal Street in the French Quarter. Plus, of course, there are all kinds of other unusual shops in the Quarter. You'll run into voodoo shops and places for beads and all that stuff.

Brees topped one columnist's jokey ranking of players who aren't jerks, so forgive him if he doesn't know much about the bars in a city lousy with swilleries. Really, for my wife and me, our nightlife is really just going to a great restaurant; taking a nice walk afterward, whether it's downtown or in the French Quarter; and then maybe catching a movie. Sometimes we'll go to a jazz club. I'm not a Bourbon Street guy, so I can't help you there.
But my wife and I were on a Mardi Gras float in the Bacchus parade. I always assumed Mardi Gras was just kind of a dirty thing, with a bunch of drunks and idiots with beads. But the way we experienced it was so classy. I was in a tux, and my wife was in a really nice gown. People were just so excited and so into the moment - and there are costumes and floats and families everywhere, and all this tradition. There's nothing like it.