Sid “Doc” Brooks had plans. Lots of them.
After spending nearly all of his adult life working – first in the Air Force, then as a longtime equipment manager with the Chargers, and finally as a senior official in the USC football program – he was going to master the art of retirement.
There were plays in New York that needed to be seen, bocce games that needed to be won, quiet nights with his lovely wife, Gerri, that needed to be enjoyed.
Unfortunately, Brooks won't get to do any of those things. He died yesterday morning of an apparent head injury after falling in the sauna of the Gilbert, Ariz., health club he attended. He was 72.
“It's just so crazy because he was feeling so well and was so active,” Gerri Brooks said last night. “He actually walked three miles the day before. There was nothing to make us suspect that anything like that would happen.
“It was an accident. He told me that he was going up for a sauna, and I guess he fell asleep or he got up and slipped and hit his head. He was dead when we found him.”
The news will send shockwaves through the NFL, where Brooks was popular with players, coaches and executives. He personified the definition of “people person,” in that he was as comfortable playing dominoes with players in the locker room as he was dining with former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in Tagliabue's home, both of which he did regularly.
Doc always acted as if he knew nothing – except at the domino table – but everyone around him knew he had the skinny on anything associated with the Chargers' locker room. Not that he would tell you. Doc was the Sgt. Schultz of the NFL, perhaps because of his military background.
He retired from the Chargers in 2000 and walked away from USC in 2005. The next year, he wrote a book entitled “Sid Brooks' Tales From The San Diego Chargers Locker Room,” which is actually a good read for true Chargers fans. But if you're looking for dirt, don't buy it.
That wasn't Doc's style. He always stayed on the high road, even when others tried to drag him down. He had plenty of ammunition to take shots in his book, but he didn't pull the trigger. Not once.
Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts wrote the forward. In part, he said: “In my 15 years with the Chargers and with Doc, there were many changes – five head coaches, at least as many general managers, hundreds of players, heck, even two owners. The constant, though, was Doc. As players, we could always count on seeing Doc bright and early, every morning, all year long in the locker room. He always boasted a smile and a quip; nothing went unnoticed by him.”
Unfortunately, we will no longer see that smile or hear his stories.
“This is just so not fair, because he was so well and happy,” Gerri said. “I don't know what to say. I just don't know.”
The family is considering holding the funeral service in San Diego, but nothing has been finalized, Gerri said.
“We're trying to make up our minds,” she said. “He had so many good friends in San Diego, and he made a lot of friends here. But Sid has friends all over the world, he really did.”
Faulk update
Former San Diego State running back Marshall Faulk announced his retirement from the NFL this offseason, but his five-year wait for for eligibility to the Pro Football Hall of Fame actually began last year.
Joe Horrigan, a vice president with the Hall of Fame, told U-T columnist Nick Canepa that Faulk will be eligible for consideration in 2010 instead of 2011 because he was not on an active roster last season because of a knee injury. That means Faulk, a likely first-ballot selection, could go into the Hall as early as the summer of 2011.
Next targets?
Who will be the next player to feel the wrath of Commissioner Roger Goodell's revised personal-conduct policy? Chiefs defensive end Jared Allen and Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson are among the candidates.
According to The Kansas City Star, Allen was sentenced to two days in jail, two days in a lockdown drug-treatment program and one day of house arrest after he was found guilty of his second charge of driving under the influence of alcohol in 2006; and Johnson reportedly is in jail until at least next month for violating his probation for a weapons charge. The Bears suspended Johnson for two games last season and he would appear to be facing at least a four-game banishment by the league.
Browns' task
The Browns have lost 10 or more games in each of the last four seasons, and their fans might not have to wait long to know how the 2007 season will turn out.
Cleveland, which has lost 11 of its last 12 divisional games, opens the season by playing each of its three other AFC North foes in the first four weeks, all in Cleveland.
Home cookin'
No team will be more rested for its season opener than the Jets, who won't have to board a plane the entire preseason. New York plays three games on its home field, including one as the “visitor” against the Giants, and its fourth game will require only a bus ride to Philadelphia.
Jim Trotter: (619) 293-1859; jim.trotter@uniontrib.com
