Eagles 3-Time Pro Bowler Brandon Brooks Announces Retirement
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia Eagles guard Brandon Brooks announced his retirement on Wednesday. Brooks is a three-time Pro Bowler.
"Although I may no longer play, I'll be an Eagle forever," Brooks said. "We'll always bleed green."
After a decade in the NFL, and six seasons in Philadelphia, Eagles guard Brandon Brooks announced his retirement Wednesday -- and he looked back on all of it.
"I can tell you what I'll miss the most, playing at the Linc on Sundays, that would be number one," he said. "And number two, the locker room. It's a unique set of guys, personalities."
Brooks was a three-time Pro Bowler and, most importantly, helped the Eagles to a victory in Super Bowl 52.
One of the best linemen in the game for a decade, Brooks is stepping away after battling injuries the past few years. But it was a public battle with mental health struggles that made Brooks even more of a household name.
"Although I'm a young man in the game of life, I'm older now at 32," Brooks said. "I think my body is trying to tell me through these injuries that, can I still play? That answer is yes. But the answer also at this point is, can I hold up?"
"We're expected to be to be modern-day gladiators. We are human begins," Brooks added. "We go through things like other people do, but it's just for us, a lot of our stumbles, a lot of our Ls are public. Some people are ashamed to speak on it, some people are ashamed to get help. They shouldn't be embarrassed, they shouldn't be ashamed, it's OK to talk to people about it."
This season, teammate Lane Johnson also dealt with mental health challenges, causing him to miss several games.
When asked how he approached the issue, Brooks choked up about his O-line partner.
"Sometimes words aren't necessarily needed. We sat there and … just like he had my back, it was always, I wanted to have his," Brooks said. "When he had his struggles, I think that made our bond closer, a lot stronger. At the end of the day, I wanted to make sure he was all right."
The Eagles released a statement on behalf of owner Jeffrey Lurie.
The Birds' owner said, "Brandon Brooks is as special a person as he was a player."
He went on to say it has been an honor to call Brooks "an Eagle."
Brooks spoke highly of Lurie, Howie Roseman, and Doug Pederson, but also the city.
"One thing I didn't realize was how important the championship was to this city," Brooks said. "You hear that a lot, but to see people dump their grandmother's or grandfather's ashes out, or I had a guy come up to me the other day and was like basically his mom's mom passed and for three hours on Sunday, it was like nothing else mattered. We gave her that much joy watching us. It's things like that -- those memories that I'll always have."
As for what's next, Brooks said he's hoping to enroll at Penn for grad school and Philly remains home.
