Drew Brees spent most of last year working his way back into sports media’s good graces. Now he’s exploring a stake in an MLB franchise.
According to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal, Brees has partnered with Joe Kudla — the founder and CEO of athleisure brand Vuori — to explore being part of a bid to purchase the San Diego Padres. The two did not submit a formal offer ahead of Wednesday’s first-round deadline, but are looking at the possibility of coming on as partners with one of the five groups that did.
Brees began his NFL career with the San Diego Chargers, spending his first five seasons there before signing with the Saints in 2006. And his connection with “America’s Finest City” apparently never fully faded, given that he regularly attends Padres games, per the New York Times-owned outlet. The pursuit of ownership is the latest move in a post-playing career defined, more than anything else, by his efforts to rebuild his broadcasting reputation.
After his disastrous playoff debut at NBC in 2022 — widely criticized for a Raiders-Bengals Wild Card game watched by nearly 28 million people in which he brought very little to the broadcast — Brees spent three years on the periphery before Fox brought him aboard mid-season last November to replace Mark Sanchez. The return has gone well. Our own Brendon Kleen wrote that Brees was far better than expected in his early Fox appearances, showing an ease that exceeded his limited experience and avoiding the long pauses that defined his NBC stint. He’s now Fox’s No. 3 analyst behind Tom Brady and Greg Olsen, finally in the position he spent three years insisting he deserved.
Sports media is only part of what Brees has been building, though. Since retiring, he’s invested in professional flag football, pickleball, and Typti ventures, and Kudla — a University of San Diego alum who founded Vuori in 2015 and has grown it to a $5.5 billion valuation — has been a friend and workout partner throughout.
Whether their interest ultimately translates into a stake remains to be seen, but they wouldn’t be joining a quiet process. Sportico has valued the franchise at $2.31 billion, though league sources reportedly told The Athletic the Seidler family is targeting closer to $3 billion, which would shatter the MLB record set in 2020 when Steve Cohen paid $2.42 billion for the Mets.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.