The NFL season goes on without Derrick Brooks

One of the many reasons Derrick Brooks became an extraordinary football player is because he was driven to be one. That kind of passion is not a switch that can be flipped on and off. It's encoded into his DNA, and it helps make him different from the rest of us.

So when he says he still wants to play, even as the announcement went out Wednesday that he has signed on (at least temporarily) with ESPN2, it's understandable. Maybe it was even predictable.

It has been nearly seven months since Brooks was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since then, two teams for sure - the New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears - talked with him about a roster spot but didn't offer a contract. The Oakland Raiders may have, too.

His name has come up in New England as well, where injuries have created a need at linebacker.

And still, the season rolls on without Brooks. It sure seems like a message is being delivered - one that hasn't been easy to receive, either for Brooks or the fans who still love him.

After all, many Bucs fans have been pleading with their team to come to its senses and re-sign him to bring leadership and order to a defense that showed obvious problems in a 34-21 loss to Dallas last week.

What they're really saying is that they want the Derrick Brooks of 2001, when he was the absolute top of his game. They want the Brooks they remember, the one who used to hit Michael Vick so hard you thought for a second you were witnessing fusion.

If that Derrick Brooks still existed, he'd be on a football field by now. If he still existed, the Bucs never would have let him go. The Brooks we saw last year was injured much of the time as 14 years of NFL wars finally caught up. Speed was his trademark strength, but he was coming out on passing downs. That sharp mind knew what to do, but his body sometimes wouldn't cooperate.

I think he honestly believed he'd have his choice of places to play after the Bucs released him. I'm sure his agent fielded many inquiries, but the spring and summer ground on and he didn't get an offer - at least not one he felt he could take.

I can't picture Derrick Brooks playing for minimum money as a spare part on a roster somewhere just so he can squeeze in a few more games. I'm not sure he was even offered that option.

The Bucs stand ready and eager to have a Derrick Brooks Day the second he gives them the word that he wants one. They want to bring him to Raymond James Stadium and let the crowd bathe him in love, just like it did for Mike Alstott and like it will one day for John Lynch and Warren Sapp. I'd throw Tony Dungy in there, too, but that's just me.

But even as Brooks seemed to be coming to grips with reality by signing with ESPN2, he told Roy Cummings of TBO.com and The Tampa Tribune that he still wants to play.

"I am still pursuing playing," he said in a text message. "Might as well get media reps while I wait. Taking advantage of my down time."

Far be it from me to tell him otherwise. If that part of his DNA just won't let go yet, then this proud and accomplished man needs to settle this on his own terms - either on the field or by coming to the realization that it's time to move on.

My opinion is that being released was such a jolt that he just can't let his career end that way. He can't have his final football memory be that awful loss to Oakland that knocked the Bucs out of the playoffs. The final image of No. 55 can't be the one where he limped off the field.

I think he wants to be able to go out there just a few more times, so he can be the one who says it's finally time to leave.

If that's what he really wants, I hope he gets that chance. I'm just not sure he ever will.