Super Bowl XLIV MVP ceremony with Drew Brees

Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, right, receives the Super Bowl XLIV MVP Award at the NFL Media Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Feb. 8, 2010. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, center, made the presentation, and Saints coach Sean Payton, left, also attended the ceremony.

By Robin Leach (contact)

Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 | 2:37 p.m.

Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees

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Our contributing photographer Tom Donoghue attended the Super Bowl XLIV MVP ceremony yesterday in the NFL Media Center before flying back to Las Vegas. Now that he’s home again, Tom has started the massive editing of his weekend photo shoots with new Miss America Caressa Cameron at Super Bowl XLIV in Miami and the annual charity event Taste of the NFL.

We’ll post those photos as we receive them, but, meantime, we wanted to share the excitement when New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, accompanied by coach Sean Payton, accepted the Super Bowl MVP Award from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at the NFL Media Center in Ft. Lauderdale.

Said Tom: “In my 18 years of covering the Super Bowl, I have never seen the Super Bowl Trophy at the MVP event. Winning coach Sean Payton walked in with Drew along with the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which the Saints had received on the field the night before.

“After Drew accepted his MVP Award, Sean talked with us and admitted: ‘I got to bed about 3 a.m. this morning, put the trophy on the pillow next to me and probably even drooled on it during the night.’

“The speeches by Roger, Drew and Sean were by far the most heartwarming I have ever heard in all the Super Bowls I have worked. There’s a new heartbeat to the city of New Orleans.”

Check back later for our Miss America photos from Super Bowl XLIV.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.