Is the Brees era over for Saints fans?

Saints fans are waiting for the other cleat to drop.
Was Sunday’s 30-20 loss to Tampa Bay in the NFC divisional playoff round the last we’ll see of Drew Brees at quarterback?
National sports media widely assume that the end of this season is the end of his career. Brees, 42 and still recovering from 11 rib fractures and a punctured lung, has yet to weigh in officially.
But if New Orleans will move on without Brees, the Saints will be building on a Hall of Fame foundation he built over 15 seasons.
Brees has passed for an all-time best 80,538 yards in his career, which included five years with the San Diego Chargers, who drafted him in the second round in 2001.
His 571 touchdown passes are second only to his Sunday opponent, Bucs quarterback Tom Brady.
And Brees was the MVP of the 2010 Super Bowl, in which New Orleans beat Indianapo-lis and Peyton Manning 31-17.
But Brees will always be more to New Orleans and Louisiana than just a great quarterback.
He and head coach Sean Payton arrived together in 2006 in a city still horribly damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The previous season, with the Superdome and much of the city still in tatters, the Saints went 3-13.
In 2006, with Payton on the sidelines and Brees behind center, the Saints went 10-6, won the NFC South title and made the playoffs.
In the Payton-Brees era, the Saints went 143-81, won seven NFC South titles and went to the playoffs nine times.
People don’t wear paper bags on their heads at the Superdome anymore.
More importantly, the Saints, Brees especially, were cheerleaders for a city struggling to rebuild.
For Brees, the magic worked both ways.
He went to Purdue after he injured a knee as a high school quarterback in Austin, Texas, lowering his standing among college recruiters.
After winning the starting quarterback job from Doug Flutie at San Diego, a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder put his future in doubt. The Chargers banked on quarterback Phillip Rivers and let Brees get away. The Saints grabbed him.
“I needed New Orleans just as much as New Orleans needed me,” Brees told Sports Illustrated’s Tim Layden in 2010. “People in New Orleans needed somebody to care about them. And it was the one place that cared about me.”