Peyton Manning Congratulated Drew Brees On Breaking His Passing Record

With the game in hand, Payton subbed Brees off the field after the two-minute warning so the quarterback could have one more interaction with the appreciative crowd. Brees threw his 498th touchdown pass on the 62-yard throw to Tre'Quan Smith on the play on which the quarterback moved past Manning. Brees, meanwhile, was able to share the moment with his wife and children down on the sideline. It makes me proud and it makes me extremely grateful - extremely grateful for the opportunity to play this game, to play it as long as I've played it, to have wound up here in New Orleans.

Manning's record stood since 2015 when the future Hall of Famer passed Brett Favre's mark of 71,838 yards, which had been in place since 2007.

The Redskins came in allowing fewer than 190 yards passing per game and spoke of doing what they could to prevent Brees from making history. Former Saints receiver Devery Henderson, who caught the pass on which Brees broke Unitas' mark, attended Monday night's game.

On a more serious note, Manning said Brees broke the record "the right way".

The 39-year-old passer, in his 18th National Football League campaign, now has 499 career touchdown passes, one shy of joining a select 500-touchdown National Football League club whose only members are Manning, Favre and New England's Tom Brady, who reached the milestone last Thursday.

Everyone knew that chances were very good that Saints quarterback Drew Brees was going to set the career passing yards record during Monday night's game and it was all but certain that the record would fall by the time the Saints took possession of the ball with just over two minutes to play in the second quarter.

A second-round pick by the Chargers in 2001 after setting records at Purdue, Brees spent five seasons in San Diego as his career got off to a somewhat slow start. You've ruined that for me.

"All your hard work and dedication has paid off", Manning said in a pre-taped message.

Of the passing-yardage record, Manning said at the time, "He deserves it".

Dustin Hopkins kicked field goals of 37 and 53 yards for Washington, which also had a 4-yard touchdown run from Alex Smith to pull within 26-13 at half-time.