This was the best of all possible conclusions

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By GARY SHELTON

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 9, 2001

TAMPA -- For those of you counting the minutes until his return, it was 7:34 p.m. Wednesday when Derrick Brooks ended his holdout, walked onto a field and kept the sky from falling.

Just like that, the linebacker returned, the day was saved and order was restored. The storm clouds cleared, the ship righted itself and peace was achieved. Also, gas prices went down.

Brooks is back.

And isn't life wonderful all over again?

From the sounds of the crowd, a raucous bunch of 5,000 or so, none of this sounds like overstatement. Brooks ended his 10-day holdout Wednesday night, and had his approval rating been any higher, the crowd would have thrown $100 bills at him, an oversight that Bucs management is expected to rectify soon.

This was the triumphant homecoming of a hero long overdue. Fans wore his number. They called his name. They cheered his movements. At one point, Warren Sapp stopped to gesture at Brooks, like Dick Clark introducing a new singing sensation, and the roar grew louder.

In a way, it seemed silly that fans would spent this much emotion because a linebacker came to practice.

But that wasn't what they were cheering, really. They were cheering that a team managed to get out of its own way.

This was the symbolism of the moment. It allowed fans to believe, if only for the moment, that if something stops the Bucs, it will not come from within. Brooks is back.

No matter which side you took in Brooks' holdout -- whether you thought he had too many years left on his contract to hold out, whether you thought he made too few dollars to work -- this was the best of all possible conclusions. All of us have been spared the silliness of an extended holdout, the threats and the posturing and the accusations.

No one wins an extended holdout. The player loses money, the team loses games and both lose reputation. Stubbornness turns into bitterness. Seasons turn into ashes.

If Brooks had dug in his heels about not reporting, and if the Bucs would have dug in their heels about not negotiating until he did, this would have become a distraction, then a contention, and finally the catalyst of all things gone wrong in a season.

Instead, the sides sound as if they are close to a deal that would make Brooks the highest paid linebacker in NFL history -- more than Lawrence Taylor ever made, more than Dick Butkus ever made. Brooks made the first step, a gesture that is certain to restore any lost luster from his reputation. Ten days? Who remembers 10-day holdouts at the conclusion of a season?

Yeah, yeah. There was talk that Brooks could leave camp again if a deal isn't done by the start of the season. It won't happen. Had the sides not been close on the parameters of a contract, Brooks would not have returned.

"The stalemate is over," Brooks said. "As long as everyone's intentions are to get a deal done, we'll get a deal done."

If the fans thought they were pleased with Brooks' return, however, they should have checked inside the Bucs' huddle at the start of practice when the defensive coordinator stuck his head in and said, "Our man is back."

"It felt like we were whole again," Sapp said. "You don't know how close we are. It was like I was missing a piece of me out there. Now the highway patrol is back. I'll hold up a few guys, and he'll make his tackles from sideline to sideline, and it'll be third and long."

Safety John Lynch said, "The huddle felt right again."

It has always been hard to quantify how much Brooks means to this defense. He doesn't pile up a lot of sacks, the way Taylor did for the Giants. He doesn't intercept a lot of passes. But few players run and tackle the way Brooks does. Few players are better on the big plays, those that determine the course of a season.

If no one else knows his value, his teammates do.

"Without him, our defense is a seven," Lynch said. "With him, we're a nine."

Sapp put it a little differently. "Without him, we're a 10. With him, we're a 15."

As long as Brooks was away without liberty, therefore, there was a suspicion that something was going to go wrong. Those who have followed the Bucs for a long period of time can be excused for feeling so.

But on a humid night underneath a bruised sky, a linebacker came home and it was possible to believe, if only for a while.

Perhaps someone will stop the Bucs after all.

From the looks of it, it won't be the Bucs. For the moment, that felt like something.

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