Topps Chrome's 2001 base set stops at #220. The rookies numbered after it, Drew Brees's #229 among them, were made only as Refractors, each numbered to 999. There is no plain chrome version to look for. A Black Refractor, numbered to 100, sits above it.
No plain chrome version: the rookies came only as Refractors.
The photograph is the one on his regular Topps rookie: Brees setting to throw in the Chargers' navy number 9. Here it is on a rainbow refractor finish, under the same 2001 ★ ROOKIE ★ TOPPS heading, with the Topps Chrome Rookie Card logo in the corner and a Chargers helmet in the other.
One widely read guide ranks it the most popular of his rookie cards without an autograph.
It would be nine years before he reached the Super Bowl. On February 7, 2010, the Saints beat Peyton Manning's Colts 31–17 in Super Bowl XLIV. Brees completed 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns, tying the Super Bowl record for completions, and was the game's Most Valuable Player.
He was elected to the Hall of Fame in February 2026, on his first ballot.
