Thank you, Derrick…Don’t go far

Posted Aug 13, 2010 by Tom McEwen

Updated Aug 16, 2010 at 08:06 PM

During his valedictory so-long to a Tampa Bay Buccaneer amphitheater full house of media, friends, and co-Bucs on Thursday, the retiring, and peerless, All-Pro linebacker Derrick Brooks pretty much poured out his heart to the rapt assembly which was respectful throughout his thoughtful commentary.  This wondrous Buccaneer, side-line to side-line linebacker, thanked all there and all others on television for the grand support he had always received—always deserved. 

The Buccaneers have never had a linebacker like him and won’t again in my lifetime, not likely in yours.  He was that good until it was that time to quit the sport.  He had slowed a bit, but not much, But you can’t slow much at linebacker in pro football and still be the star he became during his eleven-time Pro Bowl career - all with the Bucs.

Brooks was a lifetime booster for the State of Florida, for his Florida State University Board of Trustees for which he serves. He was and is enthusiastic for Florida (the University of Florida excepted) for he was a blood and guts Florida State Seminole and always will be. The Noles are doggone fortunate to have him as a booster, as is the State of Florida. He never wanted to leave, hasn’t and won’t.  He is comfortable now in Tampa with his family where he can do so much good for the state and for his college. He remembered in his recollection Thursday that his mother told him when he was five, go play football and he did and never stopped. No one of the Seminole sect or of the State of Florida can be anything but proud of this man. If he ever given a personal foul penalty, I was never aware of it and if he did, he had to have gotten it for stepping on a fallen foe who had clipped him. Brooks covered the field defensively at linebacker as well as any Buccaneer ever has, perhaps as well as any NFL All Pro has. He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“I would not have wanted to play anywhere else for the Buccaneers once I was hired by them and I will be available for whatever they may need,” he said. They will need him, Brooks, and they will surely use him to his limit. Present day linebackers recognize Brooks as among the best ever, notably for his wide range and speed. He referred Thursday repeatedly to his upbringing and his mother’s caution to treat others as he wanted them to treat him. He said his mother still attends the Buc games in Suite 207, as will he.

Brooks gave great credit to two teammates, Lomas Brown, and Warren Sapp. Brown taught him to practice as he hoped to play and to play every down as hard as he could—every down. Sapp helped his sense of humor, taught him how to skip through the opposition as they did the pregame calisthenics. Sapp also taught him to snarl at the opponent and not to step on them when he was arising from a tackle unless it was accidental and then to express his regrets to the fallen, and to say he would not step on them again, but often did. Warren Sapp was a rascal. Sapp also taught him to laugh at adversity, which he did. Warren Sapp was a master at taunting when the official was not looking and to keep that sense of humor under all conditions.

After his football days, Brooks has continued to contribute to the Bucs as an unofficial advisor. He continues to maintain an above-board approach to all things. Indeed, as he was Thursday, Brooks has been able to address all sizes of audiences and to keep them rapt. He is as sincere behind the mic as he was at his linebacking position just before he was about to knock your block off, but help you up, dust you off, pat you on the backside and say, “Nothing intentional, man.”