Steady.
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson used that word three times to describe guard Brandon Brooks Wednesday, less that 24 hours after the 29-year-old was named to the Pro Bowl for the second straight season.
He has “been the glue that’s kept that group (offensive line) together,” Pederson said of Brooks, who’s played 45 more snaps than any other Eagle on offense this year.
But Brooks was unsteady when he arrived in Philadelphia in 2016. He was obviously talented – that’s why the Eagles gave him a five-year, $40 million deal to leave the Texans. However, unbeknownst to the team, or Brooks, there was a deeper issue.
Brooks missed games in Houston in 2014 and 2015 with severe stomach pain. He was scratched right before kickoff two more times in his first year with the Eagles – a Monday Night game against the Packers and again two weeks later versus the Redskins.
He thought he had ulcers. He was vomiting before games.
That’s when he got the news. It wasn’t a physical condition, it was a mental one. Brooks suffered from a severe anxiety disorder.
The diagnosis was a blessing. He got treatment, and in his second season with the Birds, he played in all 16 games for the first time in his career, blossoming into one of the league’s most dominant offensive lineman.
“I’ve always been a great player, that’s never been an issue,” Brooks said Wednesday. “The anxiety itself was something I had to get over, something I just had to face. Once I knew what it was I just felt like, with the help of my brothers around me, there’s nothing I couldn’t face.”
Brooks still has anxiety, he admitted. But instead of letting it overwhelm him, Brooks can talk himself down.
“That was definitely one of the darkest, toughest times I was going through, and just to be able to bounce back from that man, to go through that, find myself, understand what was going on and to be able to, I guess, face that and conquer it man, and with the Pro Bowls and everything, I was just able to like let a lot of baggage go that was eating up at me and causing me anxiety,” he said.
When Lane Johnson said, “I think he’s the best in the league at what he does. He’s physically imposing, able to handle pretty much anything thrown at him,” he was referring to any challenge a defender throws at Brooks.
It applies to much more though.
Take this Sunday’s game against the Texans, his former team.
Even Brooks admitted there’s some extra excitement for this one. He’s previously commented on his dislike for the way head coach Bill O’Brien ran the ship down in Houston.
“I almost retired,” he told Bleeding Green Nation’s Brandon Lee Gowton back in May. “(Stuff) was miserable, every day. Every day.”
Brooks won’t let that affect the way he prepares though. He’s got a support system now. His teammates are “brothers” and he’s got a “father figure” in offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, who Brooks credited for his evolution into the player he is today.
“Stout’s been a tremendous, not just coach but teacher, helping me understand the game, helping me understand what I can and can’t do as a player,” Brooks said. “Not can’t do, but basically saying like the sky’s the limit.”
He’s proved that point the past two years, and the rest of the league has recognized that by sending him to the Pro Bowl.
“That award, that nomination, that goal to make the Pro Bowl, I think it comes from other D-lineman and other defensive guys voting on that,” Pederson said. “So it's a credit to Brandon and how well he works and prepares himself during the week and doesn't miss anything, just goes out and plays steady each week.”
Josh Friedman; @JFriedman57; (856) 486-2431; [email protected]
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