New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, who was in the room during labor negotiations the day before the Super Bowl, made previous reports of hostile words by Carolina owner Jerry Richardson seem overblown.

Brees was a guest on Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Radio on Monday and was asked about reports that Richardson made condescending remarks to Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning.

“Well, I mean, this is all I can say is, yeah, I was in that meeting and obviously anytime there’s negotiations I think there’s some back and forth to those,’’ Brees said. “And I wouldn’t say that things were disrespectful but what I would say is that there’s are a lot of issues to get through and we’re obviously not going to agree on everything and so it’s a process and there are a lot of things to consider here. So hopefully we can continue to make progress here from now until that March 4th date. I think we’re all hopeful that a deal will get done but if it doesn’t then we will deal with that.”