It’s A Happy Pack With Brooks Back Receiver Downplays His Feelings
Robert Brooks, who missed last year’s Super Bowl with a knee injury, insists that playing in this year’s game will be no different than watching from the sideline.
His eyes and his teammates tell another story.
“I don’t care what Robert Brooks says, he’s going to downplay everything. But he’s excited,” Green Bay Packers split end Antonio Freeman said. “And it really hit me at the end of the NFC championship, just to look at him and see that smile and the happiness and the joy that he was experiencing.”
Brooks suffered a season-ending knee injury in October 1996, and while his teammates were winning a championship, he was busy strengthening the tendon that had been transplanted in his right knee from a cadaver.
Somehow, Brooks fought off feelings of envy and emptiness.
“We’re a team, man. Edgar Bennett and Craig Newsome, they’re going to miss the Super Bowl this year, but they’re still a part of the team,” Brooks said. “They helped build what we have right now. This didn’t all happen in one year.
“It happened years before when we were going 9-7 and getting beat by Dallas in the playoffs. Nothing great happens overnight,” he said. “We were putting it together for a long time.”
And Brooks was as big a building block as any.
Coach Mike Holmgren said the Packers’ title last year was almost incomplete with Brooks out.
Brooks has emerged from the shadow of superstar Sterling Sharpe to become only the second player in club history to catch more than 100 passes.
“If there was one regret about last season, it was the play I called when Robert got hurt,” said Holmgren, who was so certain of Brooks’ recuperative powers that he released perennial Pro Bowler Andre Rison in the off-season.
Brooks was injured on a freak play against San Francisco on Oct. 14, 1996. While blocking cornerback Tyrone Drakeford, he tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments, ripped his patella tendon and sustained significant bone chip and cartilage damage.
He became something of a medical marvel by returning to his flanker position only 10 months later and catching 60 passes for 1,010 yards, a team-best 16.8-yard average and seven touchdowns this season.
“We’ve seen anterior cruciates come back before and we’ve seen the patellar tendon come back before, but never the two together,” Packers trainer Pepper Burruss said. “This is the greatest recovery I’ve seen.”
Quarterback Brett Favre said Brooks’ return was the best thing about this season.
“His desire pushes other people,” Favre said. “It seems like such a simple thing at times. But to see him come back, kind of like what Jerry Rice did that Monday night he came back for San Francisco, he gave them a big boost. That’s what Robert did for us.
“Not to mention, he’s a great player,” Favre added. “How many plays has he made this year for us that he wasn’t here to make last year? He finds a way to get open, he’s a good guy to have in the locker room, on the field, his experience and his heart.”
Brooks isn’t fond of all the attention he’s getting.
“This is not about Robert Brooks. Sure, this is the ultimate in your sport, but it’s a team sport,” he said. “I love this. It’s the Super Bowl, the ultimate game. This is your chance to shine as a player. This is what it’s all about.”
Freeman, who with Brooks became the Packers’ first 1,000-yard receiving duo, said: “There has to be a void not playing in the Super Bowl. It means the world to me to have Robert back.”
Freeman said Brooks soon will realize standing on the sideline in street clothes is nothing like being introduced to the crowd as a Super Bowl starter.
“It’s a feeling in your heart that I can’t describe,” Freeman said. “I told Robert, ‘You just have to hear your name announced and then you’ll know.’ And it’s a feeling that never lets go of you. I have it to this day.
“It’s the greatest feeling in the world.”