It's about elbow grease
Brooks learning to work hard in the NFL
BY MARK CURNUTTE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
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GEORGETOWN, Ky. - Ahmad Brooks is a legend at the University of Virginia.
Never in the school's football history did it have an athlete as naturally gifted or nationally coveted as Brooks.
At 260 pounds, he returned a kickoff 57 yards in a game. He was the best tight end on the team, though he played linebacker. If he dropped his weight to 220, he would have been the Cavaliers' best running back or safety.
It all came so effortlessly.
He was often a no-show at summer conditioning and weight-lifting sessions. If he did participate, he'd come in and ask, in the way Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor once did, "Who benched the most and how much?"
Then Brooks would get on the bench and beat the best easily and say, "See you guys for practice."
Then Brooks ran into misfortune, some of it at his own doing. He failed a drug test. There was a marijuana possession conviction.
A top-5 NFL pick if he had declared for the 2004 draft, Brooks hurt his knee.
He was limited to just six games in 2005. His weight ballooned to 290 pounds. Coach Al Groh threw him off the team in March, though Brooks wanted to return for his senior season. With his football career hanging in the balance, Brooks worked at it for the first time.
And despite the questions about his character, the Bengals selected Brooks in the third round of the NFL supplemental draft July 13.
News of second-year linebacker Odell Thurman's suspension broke the same day. With Thurman out for four games and quite possibly the year, the Bengals needed another middle linebacker.
Through the first three camp practices, Brooks looks like a steal. He could more than be worth the third-round pick the Bengals surrendered in the 2007 draft.
At 6 feet 4, 260 pounds he is a big linebacker. And he can run. As a former high school tailback - 10 touchdowns and 848 yards in 2001 - he understands the running game. That same season, he was USA Today's national prep defensive player of the year when he had 207 tackles (144 solo), 34 of them for loss.
Now, out millions of dollars, the difference between a top-5 and a third-round pick, Brooks is out to replicate results of his first two seasons at Virginia in the NFL.
As a freshman in 2003, he had a team-high 117 tackles, four sacks and four passes broken up. In 2004, he made 90 tackles with eight sacks and two interceptions.
If he can stay out of trouble off the field, he surely will be a presence on it for the Bengals in 2006.
Running second-string at middle linebacker behind only ninth-year pro Brian Simmons, Brooks is undertaking a crash course in pro defenses.
He's being coached intensely. After jumping offside Monday morning on a blitz, Brooks was singled out first by defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan, followed by position coach Ricky Hunley and head coach Marvin Lewis.
"I feel pretty good. I'm in a good situation," Brooks said after the morning practice. "The Cincinnati Bengals already got their team established. We have a lot of good players on the team, so it's imperative for me to go out there every day and compete and show the coaches I'm here for a reason."
The Bengals are banking on Brooks having grown up through the past year.
"The thing that's exciting about this: He wants to know, he wants to learn, he wants to try to be the kind of player he was in high school and his early years in college on this level," Hunley said.
Brooks has learned a lot in the past few months, he said. Football is his job, he said. It requires discipline and humility. And he's ditched the Lawrence Taylor attitude.
"The time you don't want to be working out," Brooks said, "is the time you need to be in there working out."
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