Ep 75 | Derrick Brooks: From Pensacola to the NFL

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I don't try to compare. I connect. It's the same lines as when I talk to my foundation. We don't fundraise. We friend raise. We are about the relationship. So when I look at that connection, I'm looking at it from a relationship standpoint, not a comparison. Because when you compare, I think there's no connection. There's other things that are involved that are inspiring, but I'm looking for a connection. Because as a leader, I have to connect with the father. So I look for the connection point, not the comparison. And I think that's a really, big, really big difference.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Every parent needs a little pick-me-up now and then. More than a Starbucks run, more than a night out with the guys. A real reminder you're on the right path as a parent, and you know your kid's going to be okay. More than okay. My next guest is a reminder that good things can come from small towns. He's a two-time consensus All-American linebacker and three-time first team all ACC selection, having earned the 1993 ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors. And today he's going to share his roots to Escambia County, why success is a team sport, and how his charity is setting kids up for a winning future. Making connections and building bridges, garnet and gold, Pensacola and Proud, Derek Brooks. Thank you, sir, for being here. It's nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Thank you. Appreciate you having me on.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

You are in Tampa, but you obviously have very strong Pensacola roots. So what was what was life like as a kid for you in Escambia County?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Well, again, very humble beginnings. As I grew up primarily on the east side of town, we know now as East Hill, East Side of Pensacola. And I had a lot of love, to be honest with you, growing up. And it was called tough love. That's the type of love my my parents, you know, working parents that that made ends meet. And, you know, I had no economic sense of us being poor. But we struggled. I'm quite sure many families had, but you know, those struggles made me who I am today, to be honest with you. One thing my parents always stressed to me growing up was the importance of academics. They realized at a very young age that I was academically blessed. In other words, I was a nerd.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, so being that I was uh academically blessed, uh I found myself as the only black male, particularly black student athlete in a lot of honors classes. Uh I was one of one. And I used that as motivation, uh, to be honest with you. I did not feel that anyone would intimidate me or make fun of me being a smart kid. And any sports allowed that avenue to be enhanced. At the same time, my parents let me know that the books came first, second, third, and fourth. They were not going to allow me to have any slippage uh when it came to that. They expected all A's. Uh, it was only one time that I didn't, and I was pulled from the field. And I just thank God, you know, for that love. And I always share the story of what happened in the fifth grade. My parents, particularly my dad, he warned me about being a class clown. Everyone knows what a class clown is. He looks for laughs, he creates them. Well, my dad told me that I was going to get a lifetime of laughs if I didn't straighten up in class. I never knew what he meant. I just knew my dad worked a lot in the construction field, and he never came to anything school-wide. That was my mom. So one day my dad shows up uh on a Friday afternoon, and I'm in the middle of my class act, which was being a distraction to the fifth grade class. And he came in and he spanked me. He took off his belt and whooped me in my front of my fifth grade class. Oh my goodness. Exactly. I'm still looking for the person that had on blue shoes and brown socks that day, because that's who tripped me as I was running from him. But my dad whipped me in front of my fifth grade class, and to be honest with you, that changed my entire perspective, my entire life. Uh, my dad never disciplined me uh in that way again. And it was simply explained to me that I needed to be an asset. I needed to stop being a distraction to the other student. Instead of making fun and distracting, how about help them and be an asset to the teacher? Yeah, if I finish my work first, how about help the person sitting next to me and stay instead of making fun of them because they didn't finish or they were struggling? And I just use that mantra to be honest with you, and everything that I did in my life moving forward. It's all been all about helping others.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

You credit others in almost all of your interviews. I that's something that when I was low-key cyber stalking you, um, that I noticed that I noticed. And I love that you talk about your dad because uh tell me if this is wrong, but I read that your dad didn't have the opportunity to continue his education past the sixth grade. So I imagine that had a big influence on his decision to really key into your uh super nerd abilities, as you put it.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yes, it was, you know, that journey for him stopped. And I call him my dad, but you know, actually, he he was my stepdad. He raised me since I was, you know, eight months old. And the fact that he had 16 siblings during that time growing up, it was all about making the ends meet at home. And the industries and those things back then, you know, it was a cap on the capability of a African American black person. And he worked in middle school, and that was his education. So it's kind of ironic that he emphasized that with me. And the other just a big part of that is my mother. My mother was, and coaches say this at Washington I mother was an outstanding athlete, basketball player in high school, but she got pregnant with me, you know, seeing year. So she wasn't able to go to college. She had to obviously start raising me, and that opportunity was taken away from her. So I think that drive and that push collaborating through both of them shaped me because they realized the potential that I had, and they were not going to let me waste that talent, especially when academics came so easy. As I got older, obviously I had to, I had and I did apply myself more, but they wanted to set the stage from the very beginning of anything that I did, standing on the foundation of education was going to be a priority.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

It's not what's taught, it's what's caught with kids a lot of times, right? And so when I think about um young parents, they have a certain fortitude about them. They have a certain, you know, set of qualities that they tend to pass on to their kids. And there could have been other situations where parents would push their kids to succeed in the way that yours did. But from what I can tell, it seems like a combination of who your parents were as people that you absorbed. Are there particular characteristics of your mom and your stepdad that you feel like you carry with you now?

SPEAKER_01 8:42

You know, my parents, you know, probably more my athletic ability. You know, my mom, she was one heck of an athlete. And and my dad just taught me, you know, the things he taught me was about taking care of my family and being a man. You know, it it was always this other funny story. Uh, at the age of, I believe I was uh five or six, my dad he taught me how to fish. And he said, learning how to fish, God made the most thing that God has in this earth is water. Water is gonna always be full of fish. So he taught me how to fish. So you know how to fish, you'll never go hungry. And then he taught me, he taught me how to gamble. He said, if I always had a hustle, always how to make money and work. So you hustle and you work. He said you give yourself a chance. And I thought the irony in all of that was providing. And he set that stage for me. So the providing and taking care aspect, I definitely give them a lot of credit for that, you know. And I'll be, you know, remiss if I didn't mention my grandmother, how big a part she was in my life in terms of my faith. I saw what Jesus Christ was when I looked through my grandmother and what that relationship looked like by how that that lady carried herself and how she treated people. But when I think of the love of God in my life, man, looking at Martha Brooks, God showed me a real life example of what's real in your relationship with God. And I was able to see that through my grandmother, Martha Brooks.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Wow, that's incredible. The mentorship that you had around you is just so it was such a rich way to grow up. I love hearing about the lesson that your stepdad taught you also when you were seven. I found it an unusual way to kick off your football career that you quit your first ever attempt at football. Can you talk about that?

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yes, I did. Uh, it wasn't very good. Uh, I needed something to do out of the school. So the kids in the neighborhoods playing football, hey, I'll come out and play. Sure. No problem. I got out there and I just say when anyone needed a win, they pointed at me. So wow. So if about an hour.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

You know, some people call that a target. Some people call that a target.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

See, I that's why I say win. It wasn't just a target. They needed it when they pointed at me. The guy that dirt, the cricket helmet. So, you know, I just didn't, I said, God, hour of this, I got I can't do this. It's hard. I'm not good. I'm tired of getting hit. You know, the whole discouragement. So my dad walked over and I told him, Yeah, I was doing the breaks, I'm gonna quit. He said, okay, you go over there and you tell your coach and you tell him why. Look him in the face and you tell him why. And I did. Came back to the car, got home. Before we got out, he said, All right, son, that this be the first and last time you ever start something, you quit. Say, you don't quit in life. It's not about the results. You say, it's about the process. You don't quit. You don't store anything, quit. He said, Secondly, you owe me $35, got registration fee is number 10. So I'm probably still paid interest on that all the way through. It's dead.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Oh my gosh. I love I love how your stepdad was always like the two sides, you gotta fish, you know, which is a lesson I expect from a Gulf Coast dad, right? And then out of nowhere, and you gotta gamble. And he said, Don't quit. Lesson I expect from any father. And you owe me $35. He had the zingers.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

If they owe me $35 because that registration fee was non-refundable. But, you know, and then the next so I started playing baseball. Same group of kids, because football and baseball season was opposite. That confidence of playing baseball didn't quit, finished some season, man, just felt so good to do something and finish. And then the next year I went out for football. I I love to tell you that I was a lot better. I was not, but I did not quit. And man, one of the strangest things happened is my parents, they bought me a trophy and gave it to me at the awards banquet as the family MVP. And they say, because you didn't quit. We know it was tough. I didn't even play some games, but I prepared, I did, I never did anything different, even though I didn't play, I had the same attitude. And for them, that was a sense of accomplishment. Now, as you know, I got older, I got better. You know, I started to play quarterback because I was the only guy that could remember all the plays. So the head coach put me in because I I remembered all the plays. And the other guy seemed to get a play, he put me in. So I got better as the youth, but you know, through all these experiences, man, I it was always a point in there of struggle. And I just did the best I could in managing what that struggle looked like and kept perspective on it. You know, through all my childhood. So when I look back at, you know, my roots and Pensacola that always leave me, it'd always be a spirit of humility. All the way up until my mom's deathbed and violent breast cancer. Whenever I walked into her house and she said, she don't care that I bought it. It was her house. I always took out the trash. She always ducked trash to make sure I took it out. A spirit of humility in her eyes. Secondly, the relationships that she built in Pensacola and how she served the community, even though I had the platform of the NFL. She had a platform of how she gave, particularly in working with Sue Strong to make life better during the holidays. Man, I was so excited to be a part of that, even to continue it today, because as Mama Clones, as she called herself Mama Close, I just love to see others blessed and to see her do it in her way. And to me to support that, was truly blessed. You know, my dad, you know, before he, you know, passed away, he's able to see young men now, instead of teaching me how to fish, he took others because now he had 10 to 12 different reels that he can go teach other kids, you know, how to fish because fishing, you know, was his passion in doing that. So it's just those little things, as I say, that always keep my humble roots tied to Pensacola. And when you come full circle, it's a lot of what Derek Brooks Chariots is trying to do in Pensacola today, whether it's through the Flag League and the educational initiatives that we started the Flag League with Coach David Wilson, to now we're getting uh deeper into the relationship with OJ Sims and the educational system uh of Scamnia County. How can we come in and enhance, increase, make things better, small percent, whatever it may be for those young men, those young women that are grinding their way through the educational system today?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

You have a lot of programs in the Tampa area that serve in a lot of different areas of kids' life. Are there parts of that that you hope to mimic for the OJ Sims school?

SPEAKER_01 16:28

No, man, I I do not. And here's why. I want what we do here in Tampa, yes, is a roadmap, but I don't want to mimic that because there's not the same needs in Fest Dakota. It's the same overarching need. But when you look at the Pacific things that Iscamia County is built for, I want those to be catered for the work we're doing there. I want to be involved with the relationships there that are very different than the relationships here. Like in Tampa, I'm a partner. I own a high school with Brooks DeBarlow.

unknown 17:10

With Mr.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

DeBarlow and his family. It's a high school. In Pensacola, I'm in an elementary school as a charity community partner, not an owner. In Tampa, we don't own any sports of any kind. My charity, we don't own it. We don't operate it. We do that at Pensacola with our flag league. So each program, each city has its own identity. And that's what's comfortable for me. I want that identity of programs we do in Pensacola. I want it to be identified. Now, what cross-functional program that we're working with, it is our CPR, our community police relations. What we're doing with that is taking the blueprint here that's been successful here. We want to take phases of that and work with the sheriff, work with work with the chief of police. Now let's cater this to what they're already doing and enhance that program. So, you know, when meeting with our sheriff partners or chief partners there in the community, it's all about owning a program that's catered for them and working with them for that ownership. So that's why I say I like to have a distinct distinction, but at the same time, stay mission critical because the vision is the same.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

When you close your eyes and you use your imagination to paint a picture of what you would want to see in Escambia County, what does that look like to you?

SPEAKER_01 18:46

One, I want to make sure it's a safe environment for all of us. I close my eyes, hey, I must love, man, we can be as safe as possible, protect each other as best we can as human beings. Let our differences somehow bring us together and have a tough conversation. Secondly, treat everyone how we want to be treated. That's what I want to see. And the third thing, particularly when it gets to the kids, I want them to see hope. I want them to see a visual of hope and care in their life that will spur them to keep doing the right thing, even when it's tough. And lastly, when I open my eyes after closing it, I want them to say that they have an attitude that's contagious because they want everybody to catch it.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

You talked about this in another interview, and what you said there just sparked my memory of it. You said you can't be a great leader until you're a great follower. Can you talk more about what that looks like? Because you just said you want you want that positivity to be contagious.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Well, what I what I mean by that is when you're when you're a follower, it's way more followers than leaders. And you know what it's like to serve when you're following. You have a different mindset. Your follower is bigger than you. You're looking to maximize the best version of yourself to the goal, whatever the goal is. You're maximizing yourself to contribute to the goal as a follower. You learn about accountability as a follower. You learn about finishing the task as a follower. You learn so many other things when you're not in that driver's seat. At the same time, you're very opinionated as a follower, right? You have all the answers. Now, when that shifts, when you're in the driver's seat as a leader, oh boy. Now you get to understand from sitting in that seat now, being a follower, now you're the leader. Now you understand the things that you went through as a follower that make you a better leader. And to me, I wholeheartedly believe in that concept because now you understand the difference in a leader and a person, leadership, role. How do the person support the role? How does the role enhance the person? And I don't think you can truly understand that until you're following. And lastly, man, why I say that from a spiritual standpoint. We all are followers of Jesus Christ in my world. We're followers. We follow him. That's my faith, what my faith teaches me. I can't learn how to lead anyone to Christ if I don't know how to follow Christ myself. So contextually, spiritually, that's my alignment and that's how I look at it.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

That's how you've lived it too. I heard that you before you were in a leadership position in your football career, that you literally took notes every day. That you literally wrote down okay, if I'm ever in a position where I have the ability to make changes, this is what I will do, this is what I won't do, this is what I Think about this. This is what I would want to change about that. And I love that you brought the leadership attitude to a follower position. And when you talk about having kids inspire other kids, that's kind of what comes to mind to me is going back again to what you called your nerdiness, you know, using it as a superpower of observation so that you can later use it in a position of influence.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yes. And I didn't take notes criticizing from a standpoint of criticizing anyone at the time. It was, hey, in the environment, this is what I would do with my personality. I love some of the leaders that I was following. Man, I love how they went about certain things. I just say, my personality, I couldn't do that. I'd have to do this in this environment because of my personality. I never lead from, I never follow in any role I play. Because even today, sometimes I'm a follower. I don't try to compare. I connect. It's the same lines as when I talk to my foundation. We don't fundraise, we friend raise. We are about the relationship. So when I look at that connection, I'm looking at it from a relationship standpoint, not a comparison. Because when you compare, there's no connection. There's other things that are involved that are inspiring, but I'm looking for a connection. Because as a leader, I have to connect with the follow. So I look for the connection point, not the comparison. And I think that's a really, big, really big difference.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

I love finding the connection point to build the bridges. That's right along the lines of what we're trying to do here on the podcast. I'm also excited to see what the future is with your foundation and OJ Sims and all the things that you're going to bring here that are bespoke to the Pensacola community and what we need here. Before we close, can you speak to the flag football and the golf tournament? How can parents who are listening to this plug into the resources that those things provide, or just literally plug into the flag football if that's something that they want their kid to be looped into?

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Yes, and flag, our flag football league is bigger than just the physical part of playing football. We have kids that are part of our flag football league that have disabilities, whether mental or physical. We cater their experience to serve every kid that's there. I look at us as a connection resource center for kids. We just happen to play flag football to do it. We have math lessons that we teach kids math lessons by learning plays. And it goes back to my youth. Hey, man, I remember all the plays because it was something to do with school. Well, hey, we can teach kids to add multiply subtract. And because David Wilson and the coaches have figured out ways to have an academic component to that, as well as reading. How do we enhance our reading? Man, you gotta learn how to read a football play. And let's turn it into a sentence. And now it improves reading skills. So we're trying to do all those small things in addition to the physical skills. Hey, we're talking about health and wellness. All right, we want to get kids out here. Well, when you get through playing, it's not about going to get the Big Mac from McDonald's. Hey, nothing wrong with eating a hamburger, but let's let's try to get two Big Macs, okay? And a supersized fry. Let's let's talk about eating right for your body if you want to come out here and perform at your best. So we try to cater all those things in to teaching our kids to be a resource center. The golf tournament, man, class to all the partners that have come out to support our golf tournament. We have all we're getting ready. We think we've already released the dates on our website. So www.db55.org. That's www.db55.org. That is that is go to our website and we have all the drop-down pages to everything that we're doing where it's not too late to register your kid for flag football. Hey, there is a cost. Don't get intimidated by the cost. We figure things out together. Okay? Support the golf tournament because all these resources go back into Pensacola in terms of what we're doing. And not only supporting my program, but our charity, we're partnering with community partners that are already there in Pensacola doing great things. We're just bringing different horses to the game and helping them along the way. So it's all about that connection point and uplifting. So again, thank you for uh giving me this particular platform to share our journey.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Well, thank you. I really appreciate the time. This has been great. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.