New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a Super Bowl-winner in his 18th season with the NFL.

At 39, he's roughly 13 years older than the average player in the NFL, according to ESPN. But the star quarterback has no plans to leave the field any time soon.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Brees says that he plans to continue playing football until he's 45, and wants to win at least one more Super Bowl. To make this possible, he follows a strict daily routine that includes mental preparation, physical conditioning and a healthy dose of what some might call superstition.

For Brees, everything has to add up — literally. He performs 53 reps of various core exercises every day, because that's the number of the next Super Bowl. For a long time, he completed numbers of reps and throws for the day that could be evenly divided by nine, his jersey number.

"I feel like I'm constantly counting," he says. "It has to hit a certain number. If I get that number in my head, then I'm like, 'I'm not stopping until I get to this number.' And that number on a daily basis might have a different significance."