Ex-UT player forced to grow up: Classload, new baby cause life changes
Former Tennessee linebacker Daniel Brooks believes he is starting to grow up.
Getting kicked off the football team, taking care of his 10-month-old son and going to school has forced the issue.
?Guess I didn?t have much of a choice,? Brooks said while smiling at Daniel Brooks Jr., whose big appetite has earned him the nickname ?Fatman.?
Brooks, 22, was dismissed from the team last fall after a series of incidents over his three years on campus. He remained in school to stay eligible to play football at another college next season and has been keeping Daniel Jr. in an apartment he shares with two other players.
?I was depressed, man,? Brooks told The Jackson Sun in an interview. ?I left Knoxville for two weeks and really struggled with what I should do. The main reason I came back was (Daniel Jr.). I knew I had to make something out of myself and graduate with a degree so he?ll have a good life.?
Brooks hopes to transfer this summer to Jackson State University, a Division I-AA school in Mississippi.
Brooks is taking 15 hours of credit this semester while he and the baby?s mother, Shyquisha Pettis, trade taking care of the child every couple of weeks. Pettis works and lives six hours away in Memphis.
?That drive gets a little old, but Daniel Jr.?s great in the car,? Pettis said. ?… We do the best we can to take care of him. But I think going to Mississippi is a good move for Daniel.?
Brooks? mother, Ella Brock, lives in Charleston, Miss.
Jackson State defensive coordinator Darrin Hayes called Brooks after he heard the linebacker needed a new school.
?We all make some mistakes and I think Daniel has learned from his,? Hayes said. ?Obviously, he?s going to be a great player at this level and we?re thrilled to have him.?
Brooks, Jon Poe and Arron Sears, a star offensive lineman, take shifts to make sure somebody is with the baby while Brooks goes to class.
?Me and Daniel switch off nights for which room ?Fatman? sleeps in,? Poe said. ?The only thing we leave to (Daniel) is the diaper changing. I don?t want to fool with that mess.?
Brooks played in 21 games with no starts at Tennessee. A Parade All-American, he was considered a top Tennessee high school prospect out of Central-Merry in Jackson.
He had a hard time staying out of trouble and was accused several times of hitting fellow students but not charged. The ?final straw,? as athletic director Mike Hamilton put it last October, was an altercation on campus with two basketball players.
?I didn?t do nearly as much at UT as I thought I should have,? Brooks said. ?I tell you what, when I finally get on the field at Jackson State, I might jump offsides on the first play and hit the quarterback just because I can. I can?t wait.?