UPDATED 11/08/06 — Mina Brees lost her election bid, and it’s speculated that her flap with son Drew Brees was a contributing factor.

Drew Brees played High School football at Westlake High School (my wife and I live in Westlake, just a few blocks from Westlake HS) before going on to play quarterback for the Purdue Boilermakers. Drew Brees is now a star quarterback for the New Orleans Saints in the NFL.

Despite the fact that he didn’t stay home and go to the University of Texas, Drew is still highly regarded as a home-town hero.

His mom, Mina Brees is running for office here in Austin, and was hoping to cash in on her son’s fame by using images of Drew in her campaign commercials.

Sounds good, except Drew has asked her to NOT use his name or image in her campaigns:

The NFL quarterback and Westlake High School graduate has told Mina Brees, an Austin attorney, to stop using his picture in TV commercials as she runs for a spot on Texas’ 3rd Court of Appeals, saying their relationship is now “nonexistent” after souring six years ago.

“I think the major point here is that my mother is using me in a campaign, and I’ve made it known many times I don’t want to be involved,” he said Monday.

The New Orleans Saints player said he is speaking out now because she did not acknowledge previous requests to keep him out of the campaign.

When Drew heard about the campaign ads, he called his mother and asked her to stop them. She did not return his calls or stop using his image, he said, and his agent sent her a letter Oct. 20 threatening legal action.

His mom, a Democrat, is running for a spot on the court that reviews civil and criminal cases from 24 counties in Central and West Texas. Her opponent is incumbent Republican Justice David Puryear.

During his senior year at Purdue, he said, their relationship crumbled after he refused to hire her as his agent. He said she later undercut his dealings with other agents and tried to sell a book about him to Sports Illustrated without his knowledge.

“There is definitely history,” he said. “It’s got nothing to do with my career path. I’ve just gotten older, and my eyes have opened to the lies and manipulation.”

He added that her commercials were sending a message of, ” ‘If you don’t know much about the election, vote for me because I know Drew’ . . . and that is a shame because the political process should be decided on your credentials.”

Sounds like the kind of morally and ethically-challenged person I want on my court.

When asked about the messages Drew left her to quit using his name and image, his mom called him a liar and said that she had not received any messages asking her not to include information about him in her campaign.

Austin Bay:

What the son says about his mother in this article is more damaging than anything a political opponent could ever say. This is a “self-inflicted” October Surprise.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 | Trackback |