With training camps open across the NFL and Hall of Fame Weekend upon us, I should be reveling in the imminent return of the fall – cooler air, falling leaves and most importantly, two solid days of football each weekend. Yet, there is a small hole in my glee at the return of football. Something is missing.

For the first time since I was still an undergrad, one of the great players in NFL history is not in training camp. Sure, he is getting up there in age (aren’t we all?) but as one of the greats to ever play his position, not to mention one of the great class acts in the NFL, it is still a shock to the system to imagine an NFL season without him.

Ok, if you think I am talking about Brett Favre. Just stop reading right now. Seriously. Leave the room or something. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here. We will wait until you leave.

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Sorry about that. No I am talking about Derrick Brooks.

As hard as it is to imagine, after being inexplicably released by the Tampa Bay Bucs this spring (presumably because head coach Raheem Morris was intimidated by sharing the locker room with someone older, more respected and more intelligent than himself), no other team has signed Brooks.

That is the part that baffles me. The Morris part, not so much. A young coach and GM out to prove themselves by eliminating all evidence of the previous regime, so that any victory can only be due to their genius? That is the exact formula Mike Tomlin used in Pittsburgh, only the exact opposite in every way.

If you ask 100 NFL fans who has been the best linebacker in the league for the last 10 years, I am guessing Brooks wouldn’t be in your top five responses. You would get lots of (deserved) votes for that (alleged) murderer up in Baltimore, Brian Urlacher and Zach Thomas (call it the Tyler Hansbrough effect, if you know what I mean) and a smattering of Steelers, Cowboys, Giants, and Patriots thanks in large part to the uniforms they wear.

For some reason Brooks has flown under the radar with the public. Now I am not going to call Mr. Brooks ‘underrated’. It is hard to argue an 11-time Pro Bowler, 5-time first team All Pro and 2002 NFL Defensive Player of the Year was not given his due but it could be argued that Brooks had more impact on the games he played than any linebacker since he joined the league. While Ray Lewis was busy celebrating with a ridiculous dance every time he was the 3^rd man to pile on a tackled runner, Brooks was busy changing games. How many linebackers can you think of that returned 6 interceptions for touchdowns? Hell, how many defensive backs have returned 6 interceptions for touchdowns? Champ Bailey only has 4 career pick-sixes.

I recently ran across the America’s Game episode detailing the 2002 Bucs drive to the Super Bowl win. Even Warren Sapp (not the most humble of players) acknowledges that Brooks was the leader of that defense. Maybe not in verbosity or personality but certainly in play. The culmination being (yet another) interception for a touchdown in the Super Bowl that sealed the win over the Raiders and Brooks breaking down in Sapp’s arms afterward while tears start down his cheeks. If that doesn’t choke you up a little, you are dead inside.

I recognize that Brooks is now 36 years old and may not be the every-down, all-everything linebacker he once was. But it is hard to imagine that no team in the NFL could benefit from having Brooks’ leadership and intelligence in the locker room and freakish athleticism on the field. Am I the only that notices Brooks was just in the Pro Bowl last year and still registered 58 tackles and his 25^th career interception? That is a guy that can’t find a place in the league? Really?

When Junior Seau was picked up by the New England Patriots in 2006 he hadn’t registered more than 31 tackles in 3 years and was already older than Brooks is today.

It is not a coincidence that profootballreference.com lists the following players as having equivalent careers as Brooks: Bill George, Mike Singletary, Lawrence Taylor, Jack Ham, Joe Schmidt, Ray Lewis, Junior Seau, Ted Hendricks, Zach Thomas, Isiah Robertson.

Over and above his play on the field, Brooks’ work off the field can’t be ignored. He is a member of the Florida State University Board of Trustees and during his time has seen FSU build a medical school, produce 3 Rhodes Scholars and be named one of the top value schools in the country. He also founded a high school in Tampa and has taken kids on trips around the world.

Incidentally, he has also never been indicted in the killing of anyone outside of a night club.

Am I biased toward Brooks? Of course. He was the best player on a National Championship defense my freshman year at FSU and I spent the aforementioned Super Bowl win cheering and chanting his name at a bar in Washington, D.C.. But I don’t think anyone with even a sliver of football knowledge would disagree with anything I have said here.

Anyone except every NFL GM that is, apparently. Which helps explain why most of them will be out of a job and sitting next to Matt Millen in a TV studio in a couple years.

So, if this really is the end of the game for Brooks, how does he go out? Does he whine and complain about the un-gratefulness of an organization that he literally helped build from the joke of the league to respectability? Does he hold self-aggrandizing press conferences every week to draw inordinate attention to him?

No, he issues a simple statement on his web site.

All of which, explains why whether he ever plays again, there is a simple answer when someone asks me: Who’s your favorite player?

Mr. Derrick Brooks.

Tagged as: buccaneers, derrick brooks, florida state, nfl, raheem morris, tampa bay