Three-time Pro Bowl guard and Super Bowl LII champion Brandon Brooks of the Philadelphia Eagles announced his retirement Wednesday after two injury-marred seasons.
Brooks, 32, missed the entire 2020 season with a torn Achilles tendon and played only two games in 2021 before landing on injured reserve with a pectoral strain.
“How do you say goodbye to something you’ve known your whole life,” Brooks said. “Something that taught you triumph, pain, success, failure, perseverance, love, empathy and altruism. I don’t know, but I’ll try my best. Yes, after 10 years in this game, it’s true I am retiring.”
Brooks played his first four seasons (2012-15) with the Houston Texans, who drafted him in the third round in 2012 out of Miami (Ohio).
He signed a five-year, $40 million deal with Philadelphia in free agency in March 2016. He signed a four-year, $54.2 million extension in November 2019.
Brooks made the Pro Bowl in three straight seasons with the Eagles from 2017-19 and finished his career with 114 games played (108 starts).
“I attacked my rehab with intensity and passion — I always do — but making it back this season just wasn’t in the cards,” he said. “It didn’t end the way I would have like it, but to me it’s never about the ending. It’s about the journey. I was fortunate enough to go on this journey with a group of brothers, not teammates but family.”
–Field Level Media