Notes: Drew Brees texts Dan Campbell: ‘‘I love the way your team fought’

Losing is hard, there’s no doubt about that. But when you’re losing and at least getting acknowledgement for how hard you’re fighting, well that can make it a little better.

After losing a fifth game in a row, and this one in particularly devastating fashion, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell said he got an encouraging message from an old friend — Drew Brees.

“He shot a text to me just talking about how impressive it was,” Campbell said, referring to Detroit’s comeback attempt against the Minnesota Vikings. “It was like, ‘My god, man, those guys are fighting – those guys are not giving up, they’re fighting.’ He goes, ‘You guys are close.’”

The pair spent time together in New Orleans both as teammates in 2009 and then while Campbell coached from 2016-2020. Campbell said they’re friends, but the quarterback turned NBC analyst isn’t hitting him up every week.

“I know if he’s sending me something, it’s because it means something, so that’s why it kind of spoke volumes,” he said.

Brees mentioned the exchange during halftime on Sunday Night Football. Justin Rogers of The Detroit News caught his comments:

“This man played the game like he coaches the game and I texted him after the game and said, ‘I love the way your team fought,’” Brees said. “He texted back and I felt those emotions (from his press conference) in that text message, which was, ‘I love this team and I love the way they fight.’

And it’s not just Brees offering some words of support.

Onto the rest of your notes.

• Making history as the first NFL team to go 0-17 is not impossible at this point, but the Detroit Free Press’s Dave Birkett explains why these Lions are different than the first Lions to make losing history in 2008.
• In case you missed this from Monday, the Colts collapsed and lost to the Ravens. ESPN’s Steve Levy just had to bring the Lions into it.

• “They’re going to win games this year. We just can’t let it start on Sunday.” What head coach Zac Taylor and other Bengals are saying about Detroit via detroitlions.com’s Tim Twentyman.
• It’s a little stronger than Kool Aid, but you spend game days drinking a blue raspberry lemonade and vodka-based cocktail called Honolulu Blue thanks to Coppercraft Distillery.