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Brooks still finding his way
Former USC and NFL star has kept himself busy since leaving the pro football stage
Written by AKILAH IMANI NELSON
ainelson@thestate.com
Posted on 07.20.08
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Robert Darren Brooks
BORN: June 23, 1970
HOMETOWN: Greenwood
RESIDES: Phoenix, Ariz.
FAMILY: Married for 11 years to Diana; three sons: Auston, 16, Robert, Jr., 10 and Elisha, 8.
HIGH SCHOOL: Greenwood
ACCOMPLISHMENTS: As a running back, he was named to the all-state and South Carolina Shrine Bowl teams. Was a state champion hurdler.
COLLEGE: University of South Carolina
ACCOMPLISHMENTS: As a wide receiver, he earned All-America honors in 1988. Set record for longest play from scrimmage (since broken); tied then-school record for career touchdown receptions.
PROFESSIONAL: Drafted by Green Bay in third round (62nd) in 1992 draft. Recorded 309 receptions for 4,276 yards and 32 touchdowns in seven years with Green Bay and one season with Denver. Retired in 2000.
Greenwood County
ESTABLISHED: 1897
POPULATION: 68,259 (2007 estimate)
COUNTY SEAT: Greenwood
LAND AREA: 456 square miles
KNOWN FOR: In November 1775, Ninety Six was the site of one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War fought in South Carolina. ... Home to Francis Salvador, the first Jewish person elected to the state legislature ... Home to U.S. Congressman Preston Smith Brooks and educator Benjamin Mays. ... Greenwood stages the annual Festival of Flowers in June. ... Ware Shoals stages the Catfish Feastival in May.
Five others from Greenwood County
Armanti Edwards
Greenwood High alumnus led, as quarterback, Appalachian State to a 34-32 comeback victory at Michigan in 2007 — one of the biggest upsets in college football history.
Bill Voiselle
Nicknamed Ninety Six for his hometown, Voiselle debuted in the majors in 1942. The pitcher went 21-16 for the Giants in 1944 to earn the Baseball Writers of America Association Chicago chapter’s rookie of the year award. He played nine seasons, producing a 74-84 record with 645 strikeouts in 1,300 innings pitched.
Jake Scott
The Greenwood native was a member of the Miami Dolphins’ unbeaten 1972 team and remains the career interceptions leader for the University of Georgia. He was inducted into the State of Georgia Hall of Fame in 1986 and lives on a far western island in the Hawaiian Island chain.
Max Runager
During an 11-year NFL career, the former USC punter played for two Super Bowl teams: the 1980 Philadelphia Eagles and the 1984 San Francisco 49ers.
Gaines Adams
A scrawny tight end at Cambridge Academy, Adams blossomed into an All-America defensive end at Clemson before becoming a top-five NFL draft pick of Tampa Bay. He led rookies with six sacks in 2007.
For Robert Brooks, football was the dream.
The attention that came with success at the sport was merely a byproduct.
That doesn’t mean the former University of South Carolina wide receiver did not enjoy his time on the grand stage of Lambeau Field.
“There’s an effect that comes over you, when you walk out onto that field,” Brooks said. “When you can look around and the stadium is full of people cheering for you and you know there are millions more watching on TV; there’s a feeling that comes with that. And I don’t think you can duplicate that in any other arena.”
Still, 10 years after retiring from the NFL with a Super Bowl ring, Brooks is enjoying a quiet, albeit busy life away from the lights in Phoenix, Ariz. He is the pastor of Trendsetters Church, an outgrowth of his Men of God charity organization, and owner of an asset management firm, Brooks International, Inc.
It’s not attention-getting and that is fine by Brooks.
“When you have accomplished a lot, you don’t need it anymore,” he said. “When you’ve done what you can, once you’ve done that, not having all eyes on you is not that big a deal anymore.”
Brooks said he never sought the limelight, but it was clear almost from the start of his athletic career that Brooks would be a standout. At age 6, when his mother reluctantly let him join the Pee Wee football team, Brooks scored five touchdowns in his first game.
By high school, Brooks was not only leading his Greenwood High team as a running back, but he also was one the nation’s leading sprinters. In the spring of 1988, his senior year, Brooks won state championships in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles. In June, after committing to play football and run track at USC, Brooks traveled to the Keebler International Prep Track and Field Invitational and delivered a time of 13.9 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles, placing him among the world’s fastest.
Still, he was a question-mark in the Gamecocks receiving corps one season after the departure of Sterling Sharpe and Ryan Bethea. And that was OK, because football was a means to an end for Brooks.
“My dad was a great father when he wasn’t drinking ... so growing up, it was difficult for me, especially watching my mom struggle to raise five kids by herself,” Brooks said. “I needed something to look to in life to motivate me, and football filled that void.”
His plan was to make it to the NFL and buy his mother a house. Had it been possible without the glare of spotlight, Brooks would have been happy.
Instead, Brooks earned the starting split end position for USC’s season opener as a true freshman. In his second game, against East Carolina, Brooks entered the school’s record books with a 97-yard catch-and-run touchdown, the Gamecocks’ longest play from scrimmage, in a 17-0 victory.
Against Georgia on national television, Brooks made a one-handed grab of an underthrown Todd Ellis pass that helped make him the center of attention.
“I knew then that he was going to blow up big,” said his mother, Mary Brooks Quarles.
He did.
He was named to the All-America team that season and left South Carolina tied with Jermale Kelly for the career touchdown receptions lead (19, since broken by Sydney Rice). He went to Green Bay with the No. 62 pick in the 1992 NFL draft.
His mother says he remained level-headed. Brooks says he made his share of big-headed mistakes.
But he managed to avoid negative attention, due in part to the USC coach Joe Morrison’s professional approach.
“He treated us like men, and so we had to act like men for the most part,” he said.
That helped him mature quickly under the intense spotlight of professional sports.
The seasons passed quickly, and in 1995, Brooks had one of his best seasons: 102 receptions, 1,497 yards receiving and 13 touchdowns. The next season a leg-injury kept Brooks off the field, as the Packers won Super Bowl XXXI but helped him return to his roots and his faith.
Affirming his faith was more important, Brooks said, than returning to Green Bay in 1997 for a 60-catch season that earned him the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award.
Two seasons later, Brooks knew it was time to retire. The transition was difficult but not impossible.
“When you first start out, money is the motivation,” he said “But what you come to love about it most, what I miss most, is the camaraderie, the competition.
“There’s something about laying it all on the line ... it’s an adrenaline rush.”
He gets that now from making deals through Brooks International.
That feeling of being in the center of a great arena, the subject of a cheering a crowd? It hasn’t been matched.
But, somehow, Brooks doesn’t miss it.
Reach Nelson at (803) 771-8419.
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