Drew Brees remembers calling the NFL’s newer helmets “alien-looking” after trying one on several years back.

But after being told by the NFL that his preferred helmet – a Riddell VSR-4 with a OPO-DW facemask – could no longer be worn under the league’s new guidelines, the 19-year veteran quarterback switched to a league-approved helmet – a Riddell Precision Fit SpeedFlex with a SF-2BD facemask – last summer. The league’s goal behind the new helmets is to help reduce the rate of concussions sustained by players during the course of the season.

While he admits his new helmet “feels good,” Brees admitted that he still isn’t a fan of its look.

“It was more so the fact that it just looks like I’m going to Mars instead of playing a football game, you know?” Brees said, via Nola.com. “Again, it’s all for the right reasons, right? I tell myself that if it’s making the game safer, making me safer, that it’s probably a good thing.”

Brees is one of 32 players that previously wore helmets that are now deemed illegal by the NFL. Among the players that had to switch helmets this season include teammate Alvin Kamara, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Oakland receiver Antonio Brown, which you may have heard about. Brown was so upset over the league’s decision to outlaw his helmet that he filed a grievance with the league office while reportedly threatening to retire. Brown ultimately lost his appeal and won’t be retiring, after all.

While he didn’t take the issue nearly as far as Brown did, Brady has shared his dislike of his new helmet.

“I’ve been experimenting with a couple different ones, and I don’t really love the one that I’m in, but I don’t really have much of a choice,” Brady said earlier this week on “The Greg Hill Show” on WEEI. “You get used to the same helmet for a long period of time,” Brady said. “My last helmet, I wore it the last four Super Bowls, so it was a pretty great helmet for me. I hated to put it on the shelf. It’s kind of what I’m dealing with.”

Instead of worrying about his helmet, Brees is instead focusing on what he needs to do to win his second Super Bowl ring in 2019.

“Worry about things you can control,” Brees said. “I didn’t really control that one, right? They were outlawing it. They scan your head and they do all this fancy stuff. And I figure if it’s going to help protect me a little bit more then that’s probably a good thing.”