Deputy coroner: Mina Brees, mother of Saints quarterback, has died in Colorado

Deputy coroner: Drew Brees’ mother dies in Colo.

HOT SULPHUR SPRINGS, Colo. —A medical examiner says Mina Brees, the mother of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, has died in western Colorado.

Grand County chief deputy coroner Cindy Eller said Monday that Mina Akins Brees died there Friday. Eller declined to identify the town or release any other information. She said the cause of death is still under investigation.

Grand County is in the mountains about 50 miles northwest of Denver and includes the western part of Rocky Mountain National Park and the Winter Park ski resort.

Drew Brees was practicing with the Saints on Monday in Metairie, La., after missing a scrimmage Saturday to gather with family.

“It was a long weekend. It was a tough weekend,” Brees said after practice Monday evening.

Brees said he did not have any updates regarding the cause of his mother’s death and indicated he’d rather not discuss the matter at length, at least not publicly.

“I appreciate everybody giving their condolences and everything, but … I’d rather deal with it, move on, and I’m trying to,” he said.

Relations between Brees and his mother were strained at times, with the quarterback asking her to stop using his picture in TV commercials touting her candidacy for a Texas appeals court in 2006.

Mina Brees said she had not anticipated upsetting her son and sent out replacement commercials omitting mention of her son.

At the time, Brees called his relationship with his mother “nonexistent,” saying it crumbled six years earlier when he refused to hire her as his agent.