Derrick Brooks
Derrick Brooks
Derrick Dewan Brooksis an American former football linebacker who played in the National Football Leaguefor fourteen seasons. He played college football for Florida State University, and was twice recognized as a consensus All-American. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the 1995 NFL Draft, where he played his entire professional career. An eleven-time Pro Bowl selection and nine-time All-Pro, Brooks was named AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2002, and earned a...
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth18 April 1973
CityPensacola, FL
You can pick any game and there are two or three plays that determine whether you win or lose, going either way. That's the beauty of the league, man. Every game counts, no matter who you're playing or what their record is.
Every rep that you take off, somebody else gets another look. That's just how I am. It's not a matter of being paranoid, it's a matter of being confident and not taking anything for granted.
Watching those tapes told me I've still got a lot of work to do,
I expect him to have a career year,
For whatever reason, as a team, we haven't been able to get it done, ... It's one of the things we talked about in training camp, doing things that this franchise has never done before.
He's got to earn that nickname all over again now.
We've got to re-establish our personality. That group I played with back then, you saw a personality. Guys trusting each other. Embarrassed if they didn't make it to the pile in time. Now it's time for a new personality to come along and get established.
He (Rice) was saying this is what we do -- close out games. We're not letting them in. That's the short version.
Going up in my collection with all my other stuff.
I agree with Pittman in terms of camaraderie. I said it earlier in the season, camaraderie is going to be responsible for a couple games a year. I can honestly say we hung in there and pulled out a couple of tough wins that had nothing to do with football. This team is a closer team.
I feel grateful, to be honest with you. Thank God for the effort out there, on both sides of the ball. ... Thank God the replay official saw it as we did in our locker room and changed that call. Things like that go your way throughout a ballgame sometimes, and we've been pretty fortunate this year at the end of games to make plays to win games.
I feel grateful, to be honest with you, ... Thank God for the effort out there, on both sides of the ball. ... Thank God the replay official saw it as we did in our locker room and changed that call. Things like that go your way throughout a ballgame sometimes, and we've been pretty fortunate this year at the end of games to make plays to win games.
I feel real good about it. Maybe it's because it's a younger team that everyone thinks doesn't have a chance and they don't know any better. Maybe it's myself feeling the heat and knowing I've got to turn it up. I don't know what it is, but it has a better feel. We're not all looking for answers now. We're just lining up and trying to play football.
This was about helping the team and putting us in the position to keep a lot of our players here that we currently have and, at the same time, give us something to go get a player that we felt could help us win a Super Bowl. That's the way it's always been when I've done this, a two-way street.