"To our fans – I give you my word that we as players are doing everything we can to negotiate with the NFL towards a fair deal," Brees wrote. "The NFL brought this fight to us – they want $1 billion back, we just want financial information to back up that request. They refuse to give that information to us. They think we should just trust them. Would you? We have a responsibility to our players – past, present, and future, to advance this league forward, not take 3 steps back."