Downtown! is a 40-card insert in Panini's 2021 Donruss Optic football, one the company calls a case hit. Each card sets the player in a drawn street scene.
Drew Brees, #21, stands in the French Quarter: brick buildings with iron-lace balconies on both sides, a gas lamp and a hanging fern above him, a cobbled street running back between them. He is throwing in the Saints' black home jersey with the captain's C, on the Optic chrome finish, with Downtown and DREW BREES, Saints along the foot.
Retired, and still in the French Quarter.
It came after his playing days. He had announced his retirement on March 14, 2021, fifteen years to the day after he signed with New Orleans.
The checklist mixes current players with retired ones, Dan Marino, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice and Peyton Manning among them. Brees had passed Manning for the career passing-yards record on October 8, 2018.
In New Orleans he won Super Bowl XLIV, 31–17 over the Colts on February 7, 2010, and was named its Most Valuable Player. In 2011 he threw for 5,476 yards, a single-season record at the time.
