Drew Brees decides his finger licking is no-good amid COVID-19

New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees has always had a football-snap habit, but he’s decided to stop amid COVID-19.

(Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has always had a bad pre-football-snap habit. The NFL’s all-time leader in touchdown passes and passing yards liked to lick his fingers before the ball was hiked.

To get ready, you’d guess. Literally, to get a grip, you suppose.

But he’s stopped, amid the coronavirus, as he prepares for this season.

“So believe it or not, I am telling you, I haven’t licked my fingers in four months,” Brees told reporters Saturday, via team transcript. “I used to do it all the time. I mean, it was such a habit, right? Just turning the page of a book or just to get a little tackiness on the fingers. It was just unconscious, but I’ve consciously broke myself of the habit because of COVID. Probably partly because my wife was there to get on me about it. But even throwing the football on the field, I’ve not licked my fingers in four months. So I don’t know.

“I might have broken myself of the habit. We’ll see. Listen, I’ll tell you this, if I can break myself of the licking the fingers habit, then I think that means anybody can break themselves of any habit. Because that was out of control how much I was licking my fingers.”

Brees then added, after watching film of himself, that it wasn’t just before snaps but after them as well.

“Listen, it’s one thing to lick your fingers before you get the ball and throw it that’s perfectly normal, but to lick my fingers after I throw the ball, it makes no sense,” Brees said. “And so I’d see that and I knew it was completely just unconscious. I didn’t know I did it until I saw it in a highlight and I would just shake my head and say, I guess that’s just one of my quirks.”

We’ll see and be finger-pointing while licking our lips while eating our chicken wings if you can’t quit the quirk.

Meanwhile, Brees also sent out two good posts on Sunday: