Marques Colston the Super Bowl Champion who played for respect over fame, reveals secret to playing with Drew Brees, Sean Payton's spot on vision, breaks down failure, gets real about loss, fatherhood and life after the NFL

Ryan Clark (0:00)

Marques Colston carries a quiet confidence you don't often see in an elite wide receiver. He isn't loud, boastful, or brash. There's a calmness about him that says, I know who I am, and I'll show you. I don't have to tell you. His play earned him a place in Saints history, but his character and demeanor made him a leader. Growing up in Pennsylvania, Marques loved sports. He loved his family. Then during his freshman year of high school, his world was robbed by the loss of his father. Since then, he's carried the lessons of the man he idolized, using them as motivation to become the best player, but more importantly, the best man he could possibly be. We talked about that day that Marques' life changed forever, the responsibility of becoming the man of the house, and how growing up alongside Foster's siblings shaped his perspective on family. We've had to get into football, obviously, the journey of a player who wasn't considered a great high schooler or college wide receiver, the uncertainty of draft and early struggles in New Orleans shaped the rest of his career. We get into the arrival and the greatness of Drew Brees, the emotional significance of Rebirth Night and Steve Gleason, and ultimately bringing a Super Bowl to the Big Easy. Now he's an entrepreneur, an endeavor that started during his playing day. He's in the rest of his focus is on being a father and a husband. Marques Colston could have easily been a star, but instead he chose to be what his father was to him, present, steady and reliable. So Pivot fam, please help me welcome Marques Colston to The Pivot.

Hey, man, this is a hometown legend now.

Right, as you say this name in the N-O, everybody know it, Marques Colston, man. Welcome to The Pivot. This is Fred Taylor, that's Channing Crowder, I'm Ryan Clark, Pivot fan, thank y'all for pivoting with us. And now, man, when we were texting about getting this together, I was really serious. What you and your era of the New Orleans Saints means to my hometown, man, I can't thank you enough for what you guys gave the city, both on and off the field. Like, really.

Marques Colston (2:21)

Man, it's two-way street, man. Especially for a guy like myself, having the opportunity to go down there and just feel like it's home, and just be embraced. And as you know, it's just a special time and place. So, you know, at 10 years of my life, I'm always going to cherish, man. So, great to be with y'all boys, man. Appreciate y'all having me.

Ryan Clark (2:37)

You know, speaking of those 10 years, man, you got drafted, although very late. You got drafted, because some of us don't get drafted at all. You got drafted to New Orleans, man. It's such an interesting time. Team had played their games in San Antonio the year prior, but you got to be there the night the Superdome opened, see Steve Gleason block the punt. You called it the rebirth game. Just tell me what the energy was like that night in New Orleans.

Marques Colston (3:06)

It's hard to explain, and you got to realize for me, this is literally my first home game, because we played the preseason, all of our home games were like neutral site games, because the dome wasn't ready yet. So this is literally my first experience in the dome period. So just to be able to feel that emotion, be able to feel how much bigger than football that night was, it's something that at 23, it probably should have overwhelmed you, but you had just been kind of embedded in the community enough that you really understood how important it was. So it was something that kind of fueled you. And then, you know, obviously, just to start the game with Gleason and the block punting, it was a buzzsaw, man.

It was nothing Atlanta could have done that night that was gonna work. It was nothing, it was no outcome outside of the one that we saw that was gonna happen that night. So again, just to be a part of something like that and really kick off my Superdome experience that way, I don't think it will ever be top in the championship game included. It was that special.

Channing Crowder (4:02)

And like you're saying, being a young dude and knowing the tragedy and all that stuff, but it's being more than football.

Like we go back now and people still talk about like that they had to attach themselves to something. And there's some mid 20 year old dudes out there playing ball. Was that, I don't wanna say intimidating, but you ain't just catching passes, you're representing a city and hope.