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Shocking Day For Brooks, Bucs Fans

By MARTIN FENNELLY

mfennelly@tampatrib.com

Published: February 26, 2009

Who Is The Greatest Player In Bucs History?

Who feels good about this? Even people who thought it had to happen, including the Glazers and their new coach and general manager, even those of us who understand it, should feel sick to our stomachs.

A whole town should.

Derrick Brooks was cut Wednesday.

I never thought I'd write that sentence.

I just wrote it, and I still don't want to write it.

The Wednesday Morning Massacre is over. The other names were a jolt: Dunn, Galloway, Hilliard, June.

But Derrick Brooks, that shocked us.

He was pushed aside by new Bucs coach Raheem Morris and new general manager Mark Dominik - and the Glazers - in the name of a new direction.

Who gets to finish where they start in the NFL anymore?

It's a cruel game.

It was never crueler than Wednesday.

Note: Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen didn't do this.

I'm trying to make football sense of this. It isn't hard to do. Brooks will be 36 entering next season. The Bucs are far from their Super Bowl night in San Diego. It wasn't that way when John Lynch got his.

These Bucs are coming off an epic collapse. Clearly they want to break with the past. From the top down, they figure it's better to break cleanly.

Yes, it makes football sense. But excuse me if I'm not thinking clearly this morning. It'll happen, just not this morning.

This morning I'm thinking of the greatest Buc of all. I'm thinking about blood, sweat and tears. I'm thinking about 55.

"The best defensive player I ever played with, including me," Warren Sapp said. You can almost hear Sapp chuckling, like back when he and Brooks conquered the world and stopped all the Buccaneers jokes.

I'm thinking about Derrick Brooks coming out of Florida State. People wondered if he was too small. He became larger than life. I'm thinking of one of the most decorated players in NFL history.

I'm thinking of Brooks getting ready for a game, carrying his notebook down the hall to go watch more film and take more notes. I'm thinking of the professional. I'm thinking of the leader.

"Nobody was ever better at standing in front of a team than Derrick," said Ronde Barber, who survived the purge.

I'm thinking about Derrick Brooks seeing and stopping a play before it's even a play.

I'm thinking of the Iron Man who never missed a game.

I'm thinking of the man who wasn't just football.

I'm thinking about the Walter Payton Man of the Year. I'm thinking about the Florida State trustee. I'm thinking about the teacher who took children to Africa, Washington or any place where they could learn and dream. I'm thinking about the man whose name is on a Tampa high school.

Derrick Brooks taught a lot of people a lot of things.

I'm thinking of one of the proudest athletes I've ever known.

That pride might lead him onto the NFL field again, to an ending on his, not someone else's, terms. Anybody hope he makes a million tackles?

I'm thinking about Derrick Brooks with the ball in San Diego that Super night, running to the end zone to seal history. I'm thinking about those tears in his eyes as he came to the sideline.

Yes, there's football sense. Maybe I don't want to come to it just yet. Maybe I don't want to think of Brooks' last Bucs game, his body broken, trying on a bad hamstring to catch a Raiders runner. For one more day, remember what he'll always be. He's Derrick Brooks, the greatest Buc of all.

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