An unexpected name crossed my mind Sunday night as the confetti rained down on Saints quarterback Drew Brees: Colt McCoy.

As the Super Bowl MVP soaked up the glory and vindication that comes with the success so many said he couldn't attain, he told Jim Nantz and the rest of the world through watery eyes, "I've tried to imagine what this moment would be like for a long time, but it's even better than I expected."

Contrast that elation with January's college football championship, and the thoughts running through a fellow signal-caller on the dejected end of that emotional spectrum.

Though they permeate our sports psyche, I'm rarely one for comparisons. Yet, I doubt Brees' MVP moment was lost on McCoy, because the parallels are as poignant as an infant in headphones.

Undersized, exceptionally accurate, role model citizens...they even share the doubts created by a throwing shoulder injury.

McCoy actually has two inches on Brees, the shortest starting quarterback in the NFL this season, though McCoy's 6'2" frame is said to be a weakness as he makes the jump to the next level.

Many believe that his combine measurements might even fall short of that listing, as they did for Brees, who was stunned to learn he'd shrunk from 6'1'' to 6'0'' somewhere between Purdue and the pros.

At the time, Dr. James Andrews described Brees' 2005 shoulder injury as the worst he's ever seen, and the uncertainty that diagnosis created has everything to do with why the Saints are first-time Super Bowl Champions.

Thankfully, McCoy's "burner" is nowhere near as catastrophic, and after consulting with that same specialist, he was given assurance he'd be fully healed for the upcoming NFL Combine. But it serves as yet another question mark the former Longhorn will have to erase.

There are similar doubts about McCoy's ability to play under center and throw the deep out, the usual college quarterback skepticism. However, there's no denying his precision. McCoy set an NCAA single-season record for completion percentage (76.7 percent) in 2008, just as Brees did during his 2009 NFL campaign.

So, as the Super Bowl MVP engineered a game-winning touchdown drive against the Colts, zipping eight perfect completions to eight different receivers, surely McCoy took notice.

Hopefully, NFL scouts did, too.

There's a spot for undersized but overly accurate quarterbacks in this game, and we can never have enough men worthy of a comparison to Drew Brees.