Watching Drew Brees break the NFL’s career touchdown passes record Monday night was a fresh reminder that a decision made in 2006 altered not only Brees’ NFL future, but also the future of 2 NFL franchises, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the SEC.

To set it up, Brees was coming off shoulder surgery. He was 27 and with the San Diego Chargers — where he had made 1 Pro Bowl and hadn’t won a playoff game. Everybody knew Brees was a a viable starting QB when healthy, but he didn’t appear headed to the Hall of Fame. The Chargers, skeptical of Brees’ health after said surgery to repair a torn labrum, traded for Philip Rivers.

That left Brees without a team. Nick Saban, in between his 1st and 2nd seasons with the Miami Dolphins, was looking for a quarterback.

Saban and the Dolphins looked hard at Brees, but a suspect medical exam by Miami doctors leaned the team away from Brees and toward a trade to pick up Daunte Culpepper — who was coming off a major knee surgery. The Dolphins traded a 2nd-round pick to the Vikings for Culpepper. Brees was snapped up by the Saints. Saban left the next season for Alabama. And the rest — especially for Saban, Alabama, Brees and the Saints — was history.

But what if Saban chose Brees? Welcome to the alternate reality of Alabama football …

Alabama gets its man … finally

On Nov. 27, 2006, Alabama fires Mike Shula and almost immediately reaches out to a trio of coaches to build on what Shula brought — mainly, a sense of calm and order after years of NCAA investigations and Pensacola strip club adventures.

The trio — Steve Spurrier, Rich Rodriguez and Bobby Petrino — couldn’t be any different. But after Spurrier gives athletic director Mal Moore and steadfast “no” during a quiet dinner at The Bright Star and Rita Rodriguez tells her husband that leaving West Virginia is out of the question, Moore camps out in Louisville and won’t leave town until Petrino is on the private jet with him.

On Jan. 4, 2007 and a day after being besieged by well-wishers at Tuscaloosa Regional Airport — including hundreds of Tide fans holding up “Petrino Time!” extra editions of The Tuscaloosa News — Petrino is formally announced as the Alabama head coach and immediately sets out to continue to rebuilding process that Shula began.

A 7-6 season and a victory against Colorado in the 2007 Independence Bowl was certainly a step in the right direction, but Petrino finds recruiting in the SEC more of a challenge than it was in the Big East. Among the players Petrino misses on is wide receiver Julio Jones from Foley, safety Mark Barron from Mobile, running back Mark Ingram from Flint, Mich., and linebacker Dont’a Hightower from Lewisburg, Tenn. — all of whom sign with Les Miles at LSU.

Petrino implodes on a slippery Gordo road

Alabama struggled in 2008, losing to LSU, Tennessee and Auburn. The 2009 season saw Petrino’s brilliant offensive play-calling improve the Tide to 10-2 and a berth in the Cotton Bowl. But Petrino’s sudden departure in April 2010 made those on-the-field successes quickly fade away.

Petrino was involved in a motorcycle crash on US 82 outside Gordo when he was riding with former All-SEC volleyball player Suzie Spiker, whom he had just hired as student-athlete development coordinator for the football program after she served as a fundraiser for Tide Pride. Petrino initially said he was alone on the motorcycle. However, on April 6, just minutes before a police report was to be released showing Spiker was also aboard, Petrino revealed that Spiker was not only a passenger, but that he had been conducting an adulterous relationship with her.

Alabama AD Mal Moore placed Petrino on an indefinite paid leave of absence while he reviewed the situation. Not long after, Petrino was fired.

Tide’s decline to irrelevance

After going more than 25 years with consistent success, Alabama fans start coming to the realization that Bear Bryant is never going to return to Tuscaloosa.

Former coach Gene Stallings formally denounces the program in the wake of the Petrino-Spiker scandal. The NCAA returns to town again after social media posts implicate offensive coordinator Hugh Freeze with cash payment inducements trying to lure Cam Newton to the Crimson Tide. Moore is forced into retirement, too, following the motorcycle episode — replaced by former Tide player and Taco Casa founder Rod Wilkin.

Wilkin’s 1st hire seems inspired from the start, as he steals Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin away from an irate Al Davis. At age 35, Kiffin quickly begins alienating an entrenched Crimson Tide booster base and is simultaneously hamstrung by NCAA probation stemming from Freeze’s illegal recruiting. Alabama goes 6-6 in 2010 and, in a middle-of-the-night departure, Kiffin bolts Tuscaloosa to continue to fail upward at Southern Cal.

All the coaching unrest and postseason ineligibility cripples Alabama’s recruiting. Little changes when new coach Richard Williamson is hired, despite new recruiting coordinator Rodney Orr’s attempt to right the ship with an innovative website-based talent evaluation system known as “Tider Insider.”

Wiliamson doesn’t fare any better, as the combination of Tommy Tuberville at Auburn and Les Miles at LSU have a stranglehold on the SEC West. Tuberville whips Alabama with such regularity that Alabama unsuccessfully tries to get the game moved back to the 70,000-seat dome built in Birmingham as part of the lead-up to the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Miles fares even better, beating Alabama in 10 consecutive seasons, winning 10 consecutive SEC West titles and earning 4 national titles to establish himself as arguably the greatest college coach of all time.

And in the NFL?

Saban and Brees become a force after Saban defies the advice of team doctors and brings in Brees. The Dolphins go 8-8 in his 1st season, but Saban knows he has something special — so much so that when somebody asked him that year about the vacant Alabama job, Saban uttered the words that have made him beloved in Miami: “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.”

Just a year later, Brees and the Dolphins stun the undefeated Patriots in the playoffs. Patriots vs. Dolphins, Bill Belichick vs. Nick Saban, Tom Brady vs. Drew Brees is a perfect rivalry that envelops both fan bases.

The Dolphins and Patriots alternate division titles for years to come, frustrating Belichick so much that he begins to explore innovative ways to find an edge — such as allegedly deflating footballs during Dolphins games in Foxboro. Miami wins the Super Bowl in 2009, 2010 and 2019 before Saban retires to his Lake Burton home.

The Saints, meanwhile, lose out on Brees and instead go with Daunte Culpepper to resurrect their franchise. Culpepper plays just 4 games in 2006 before reinjuring his knee and, following the destruction brought by Hurricane Katrina, Saints owner Tom Benson relocates the perennial laughingstock to San Antonio.