AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > October > 14
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Brooking consistent through ups and downs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
You’re Keith Brooking, and you’re as proud as they come as an NFL player. Despite a season or three to the contrary, your team is evolving into The Great Pumpkin again before Halloween, and you’ve seen this horror movie throughout your decade with the Falcons.
Seriously, now. How in the name of Jessie Tuggle do you keep from screaming? And do you ever think of peeking between your fingers to see as little of these Falcons nightmares in progress as possible?
“Man, I’ve been through a lot in this game,” said Brooking, telling the truth with wide eyes at his Flowery Branch locker. He’ll take his middle linebacker spot tonight at the Georgia Dome with another 1-4 team sprinting toward oblivion. Large factions of the locker room dislike the rookie NFL head coach. The old starting quarterback is heading to prison for dogfighting, the new one has a career record as a starter in the league of 24-47, and the backup is strikingly underwhelming.
If that isn’t enough, the offensive line is dreadful and injured, which means the pass-rushing goblins of the New York Giants are on the verge of embarrassing the home team on Monday Night Football.
Guess what, though? As was the case during those other seasons of woe for the Falcons, Brooking has remained Brooking. This time, he is prospering after a slow start. He also isn’t the best linebacker on the team anymore, but only because the streaking Michael Boley is flirting with becoming the best linebacker in the league. Still, Brooking is operating in the vicinity of that Georgia Tech standout via East Coweta High who led the Falcons in tackles for six straight years and ended last season just shy of the Pro Bowl for a sixth consecutive time.
The point is, since Brooking is continuing his habit of not giving up no matter what, his teammates should spend the rest of the season following his example.
No matter what.
“The one thing that I know, and that I have strong convictions about, and that I believe with all of my heart, is that your mind-set, your beliefs and your work ethic never changes,” said Brooking, unintentionally doing a Tuggle imitation, both vocally and physically. Just like Brooking, Tuggle was a perennial all-everything linebacker who played for a bunch of lousy Atlanta teams before retiring after the 2000 season. And, just like Brooking, Tuggle always discovered ways to speak of his overall NFL despair without throwing his teammates under the Falcons’ downward-chugging train.
Added Brooking, “I’ve just had so many scenarios take place throughout the course of my career with the Falcons. Injuries. [Significant] guys going down. Three-, four-, five-game losing streaks. But I’ve also had a lot of success here.”
Well, not a lot, but we understand Brooking’s point. He spent his rookie season with the Falcons in 1998 when they made their only trip to the Super Bowl. It’s just that the following season, bruising runner Jamal Anderson was lost for the year after he damaged his knee during the second game, and the Falcons dropped to 5-11 when they lost six of their opening seven games.
In 2002, the Falcons managed their Miracle at Green Bay, where they became the first team to beat the Packers at Lambeau Field in the playoffs. It’s just that Michael Vick broke one of his miracle legs during an exhibition game that following season to trigger another 5-11 finish for the Falcons.
Then, in 2004, the Falcons reached the NFC championship game, but they’ve fluctuated between mediocre and awful ever since.
Brooking sighed. Not out of indifference over his plight with a franchise that never has had back-to-back winning seasons, but out of frustration. “I mean, you face it, and you approach it with the same mentality,” Brooking said. “The old cliché is that you not only have to know how to deal with failure and disappointment, but you also have to know how to deal with success, and you do it the same way. You do it with consistency.”
The Falcons are into consistency, but only when it comes to resembling a mess more often than not.
Permalink | Comments (65) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
