Drew Brees Hopeful of Long-Term Deal With Saints

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees is confident that he and the Saints will agree on a long-term contract.

With the start of training camp about a month off, the two sides still have "a ways to go" to close the gap, the 2010 Super Bowl MVP said Tuesday.

Nonetheless, he said, "I'm confident, and always have been, that we'll get a long-term deal accomplished."

Brees acknowledged that the NFL's bounty investigation into the Saints has slowed down negotiations.

"This has been a stressful offseason in a lot of ways. There's been a lot of distractions for everybody," he said. "I'm not using that as an excuse other than just stating it as fact. That has delayed things quite a bit at times."

And when it comes to that bounty probe, Brees is adamant that the league has not proved money ever changed hands in a pay-to-injure scheme.

"How can everybody think that when there's been no proof that's been put forth thus far?" he said. "There's been an investigation; there's been a lot of stuff put in the media as to what was going on. But is there any proof to back that up? No, there's not. Not yet."

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