Drew Brees is one professional athlete—yes, there are others—who sees the riches he acquires in his high-paid trade as a star NFL quarterback as tools to achieve good ends. He has established an impressive foundation to assist children in New Orleans, and now he is using his wealth to keep his team together and get them ready for the coming season.
As NFL training camps remain in limbo while the courts decide the legality of the owners’ lock-out, Brees’s Saints are training anyway, because he is picking up the bill, paying Tulane staff to help out during practices and flying in his personal trainer to oversee the team’s conditioning program, even arranging for the Tulane Institute of Sports Medicine to provide insurance for players who need it. Brees has also arranged for lodging for some of the younger players on the team.
Quarterbacks are always team leaders in name and reputation, but Drew Brees is exhibiting exemplary leadership and character by acknowledging his special resources and using them for the benefit of his colleagues during a crisis. Wealth and influence can accomplish wonderful things if the individual who is wealthy and influential has the ethical character to make it so. Drew Brees is such an individual, and a magnificent example of leadership as well.
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Note: Ethics Bob posted on Drees right about the same time I did. You can read his comments here.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack – my work brings me into fairly frequent contact with Drew; he’s an incredibly nice guy and a leader both on and off the field. I think you might be pleasantly surprised at just how many players in the NFL operate at similar levels of leadership and generosity. Their stories, unfortunately, don’t have the same sexiness as the stuff that is more frequently reported. Thanks for picking up on this and commenting (and letting me name drop a little!).