Leading man: after years of playing a supporting role to flamboyant teammate Warren Sapp, the linebacker became the star of the show in Tampa - 2002 Defensive Player Of The Year: Derrick Brooks

Football Digest, April, 2003 by Vito Stellino

FOR MOST OF HIS NFL CAREER, Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Derrick Brooks has been somewhat overlooked. Despite being an integral part of a perennially staunch defense, Brooks has been eclipsed by teammate Warren Sapp, the defensive tackle who comes up with the colorful quotes and moves around the field like a whirling dervish.

That finally started to change this season. Brooks, FOOTBALL DIGEST's 2002 Defensive Player of the Year, was such a playmaker that it no longer was possible to ignore him.

Even Sapp admits as much. "He's always been the heart and soul of our team," says Sapp, who was our Defensive Player of the Year in 1999. "It always takes us a little while to find the great ones. They're kind of hidden, especially when he has a mouth like me beside him all the time. He's just an unassuming, businesslike professional who goes to work every day."

When Brooks came out of Florida State in 1995, there were concerns that he was too short and too light (6'0", 235 pounds) to be an effective linebacker in the pros. Despite a topflight college career, he fell to the 28th spot overall in the draft. But the Buccaneers--as well as the rest of the league--soon found out that Brooks' size was not an issue. What everyone saw was a linebacker who could make big plays, both against the run and in pass coverage.

It's been like that ever since--especially in 2002. When Brooks chased down superstar St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk and slammed him to the ground in a Monday night game this season, first-year coach Jon Gruden couldn't stop talking about that play. "I've never seen that happen to Marshall Faulk," the coach says. "Marshall Faulk may have never seen that happen, and I just wanted to let Derrick know that. For about 15 minutes, I told him, and he finally stops me and says, `Coach, I've been doing this for a long time.'"

This year, though, everyone around the league finally noticed. Brooks had a career-high five interceptions, defensed 15 passes, and led the team in tackles for the fifth straight year with 170. The rest of Tampa Bay's defense followed Brooks' lead: The Bucs allowed only 196 points, 45 fewer than any other team in the league.

The stat of Brooks' that really turned heads, however, was the four touchdowns he scored off of interceptions, one shy of the record for defensive TDs set by Ken Houston in 1971. For good measure, Brooks then intercepted a pass and ran it back 44 yards for a touchdown in Tampa Bay's dominating 48-21 win over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl 37.

Never was Brooks' playmaking ability more evident than in Tampa Bay's two regular-season games against the Atlanta Falcons. His teammates marveled at the way he continually chased down Michael Vick, the quickest and most elusive quarterback in football.

"He's the highway patrolman," Sapp says of Brooks. "He's the only one who can get this dude [Vick] from anywhere at any time. Vick's running, and he gets by me and [defensive tackle Anthony McFarland], and then he's getting outside the left end and he's going to go again. Then No. 55 [Brooks]--his siren's on, and he's come to make the stop."

"He makes some of the darnedest plays," Gruden adds. "You wind up saying to yourself, `Did he just do that? I'll be damned. He just did that.'"

Brooks' sensational effort in 2002 came on the heels of a frustrating 2001 season. He suffered a foot sprain while defensing a pass on the last play of a game against the Green Bay Packers on October 7 of that season, and he wasn't the same after that. "Plays that my teammates were used to me making, I just wasn't making," he says. "Time and time again, I talked about a play five yards out of my range that my teammates were used to me making, and I wasn't making it."

There even was talk that the defense as a whole had passed its prime and was slowing down. "All that criticism about the defense getting old and taking a step back, we shoulder all of that," Brooks says. "It was something that we kept inside our room, but we wanted to prove not only to you guys [the media] but to the rest of the league that this defense wasn't going anywhere."

If anything, it came back stronger than ever. Everyone on the unit--especially Brooks--had something to prove. "I really did," Brooks says. "Inside of me, that's where, really, the fire burns. I really didn't have to talk about it. My coach [linebackers coach Joe Barry] knew about it. He challenged me. I really just stepped up and responded to his challenges."

Brooks says that when Barry saw he was hurting last year, the coach told him to just hang in there and get well. Brooks was even held out of drills last spring so that he could fully recuperate.

"He [Barry] was very reluctant and very firm in not letting me come back until I was able to go 100%," Brooks says. "It was a tough decision for him to do it because I kept after him every day, wanting to do something, and he just wouldn't bow to me."

Barry's strategy worked. By June, Brooks had healed and was ready to have a stellar season. And then the linebacker set out on his usual course of intense preparation.