Drew Brees setting the NFL assists record Monday night has transported me to a mystical era where Brad Childress looked like an oracle and Nick Saban to a fool, a time that mired the Miami Dolphins in a mediocre and leads the Saints of New Orleans to the Super Bowl.

I was at the spring training in Fort Myers, Florida, covering the Twins, when the Dolphins convened a press conference so Saban could discuss, or avoid discussing, the signature of Daunte Culpepper .

I went through Alligator Alley to find Saban behind a lectern, explaining why – or refusing to explain why – his team chose Culpepper as a quarterback of his franchise.

If you remember, Childress' first revealing act as head coach of the Vikings was to ridicule Culpepper's refusal to rehabilitate his injured knee in Minnesota. Childress said that Culpepper was working alone in Florida: "They go to a Walmart car park to make his movement, so you can understand where I'm coming from." There's the HealthSouth, the Chinese restaurant, the laundromat, here's the alley, through the back door and into the Walmart car park. "

Culpepper has sufficiently rehabilitated his knee in the Florida car parks to exchange a second-round pick against the Vikings, this price being preferred to the big contract requested by Brees.

Imagine the football landscape if the Dolphins had signed Brees in 2006 instead of trading against Culpepper.

The dolphins, with Brees, could have started the dynasty of the New England Patriots.

Brees and Tom Brady would have faced each other twice a season.

Saban could have stayed in South Florida instead of going to Alabama and dominating the world of college football.

The Saints would probably not have won a Super Bowl.

As a quarterback of the franchise, Childress inherited Culpepper. While it is now easy to judge him as a failure, he was then two years away from one of the most productive and impressive quarterback seasons in NFL history.

This is the other twist of this story: if Childress had committed to Culpepper, the Dolphins might not have had any choice but to meet the requirements of Brees' contract.

Instead, Culpepper collapsed and Childress wrote Tarvaris Jackson. After the failure of Culpepper, Saban was looking for a job where he was assured of having the best talent on the field. Jackson's difficulties led the Vikings to recruit Brett Favre, who lost to Brees and the Saints in the NFC title game.

Brees became a cultural and sporting hero in New Orleans. He lives in the city center, trains his children's teams and helped the city recover from the anger caused by Hurricane Katrina – psychically if not physically. He found a house.

I have another personal memory of Brees. During his last year, I stopped at Purdue to talk to him. I am 5-11 years old. It's about my size, maybe a little shorter. He was not particularly muscular and had this distinctive mole on his face.

He looked like a quarter of high school.

He was an excellent quarterback in Austin, Texas, but his lack of height and a knee injury prevented Texas and Texas A & M from recruiting him. So he signed with Purdue.

The San Diego Chargers made him a second-round pick, then used a first-round pick from Philip Rivers three years later.

Brees tore his labrum in the last game of the 2005 season and some doctors told him that he might not play football anymore.

Athletes like to say that they have silenced their skeptics. Brees has virtually put the world of football muted. The most prolific smuggler in the history of the NFL has had to prove his evidence at every level. Now that he is at the top of the statistics, he could go on for a few more years, turning memories of Peyton Manning, a native of New Orleans. .

The dolphins could have had it.

Of course, the Vikings could also have tried to sign it.