Amid our preseason flurry of activity for all things Saints and LSU, a WWL listener brought our attention to something that should have caught our attention years ago.

The photo evidence is undeniable...It appears Drew Brees has been time-traveling.  Either that, or he's a vampire.

WWL Radio listener and Saints fan Tiffany Buyatte forwarded the photo to us, with a note that said, "Is there a resemblence or not?" 

At first, we were sure this purported photo of our 19th President, Rutherford B. Hayes, was a Photoshop'd hoax.  However, after further investigation, the evidence was clear…Drew Brees apparently spent his off-season gallivanting around the known universe.  (No wonder it took so long to get a contract done.)

Journeys through time and space often involve disportionate displacement of the space-time continuum, so it appears that Drew's planned short jaunt into the past wound up becoming a decades-long exercise in politics, from his perspective.

The final record reflects that Drew would up living half a century in 19th Century America, eventually assuming the role of the presidency under the pseudonym “Rutherford B. Hayes.” 

No comment yet from Drew Brees or the Saints about how Drew was able to return to present-day Louisiana, and/or if it involved a Delorean.

UPDATE:  The  Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center responded to our request for clarification on whether the photo is authentic.   Gilbert Gonzalez, the Director of Photo Resources at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, sent us the following email:

Hello Jay--Yes, it is Rutherford B. Hayes. The photo is from a daguerreotype, one of the first photographic processes. We don't have an exact date for the photo, but it was taken in the late 1840s. Hayes was born in 1822, so he was 25 or 26 years old in this photo. He was a Fremont, Ohio and then a Cincinnati attorney before the outbreak of the Civil War. This photo is used in almost all of the biographies of R.B.Hayes.

When Hayes joined in the Civil War effort, he grew the full beard he would have for the rest of his life. We only have 3 photos of Hayes without his beard, and they all look basically the same.

The director of the Hayes Center, Tom Culbertson, thinks Hayes looks like Montgomery Clift, but I think he looks like Daniel Day Lewis. I spoke with someone who knows what Drew Brees looks like and she agrees there is a resemblance.

I hope this helps and thank you for your interest in the 19th President of the United States!

Gilbert Gonzalez
Photographic Resources
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center

Click HERE for more information about the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center..