Brian Kelly’s LSU team has been operating under intense pressure lately, not just because the SEC always turns up the heat. Fresh off a season where “CFP or bust” could easily adorn every Tiger’s jersey, Kelly has confronted high expectations, navigated a revolving door of transfers, and endured fan scrutiny that makes Baton Rouge feel like the Vatican of college football. However, no one could have anticipated the heart-wrenching story of team captain and playmaking safety Greg Brooks Jr. His 2023 season took a devastating turn, not due to a missed tackle but because a brain tumor disrupted his life.
In August 2023, Brooks began feeling off, with nausea and dizziness, the kind of symptoms you’d want trainers to take seriously. A month later, after 39 days of complaining about these symptoms, someone finally talks about bringing a neurologist in on it. That’s when they discovered the brain tumor, and things went downhill quickly. Brooks transitioned from anchoring the secondary to fighting for his life after emergency surgery left him permanently disabled. His family now claims that an unqualified surgeon conducted the operation, following weeks of LSU’s medical staff dismissing his symptoms as mere vertigo and heat exhaustion.
And then the actual drama began. As Brooks and his family fought through the aftermath of chemotherapy and radiation, learning to speak and eat, the silence from the LSU coaching staff was deafening. Brooks Sr. didn’t hold back. LSU insider Matt Moscono responds to a particular interview on The Pivot podcast between Greg Brook Sr. and Ryan Clark on his After Further Review: LSU show. “My son almost lost his life coach Where were you? Forget about football, pick up the phone and say you love the kid, man,” Matt quotes Greg Sr. from that interview.
Kelly, never to let his name take a blindside hit to its reputation, responded, “It is factually incorrect to state that I was not there by Greg’s side through this ordeal. I was there on multiple occasions. We had somebody from my staff that was there virtually every single day. We love Greg. We love him for the person that he is, for the competitor that he is, and for the battler that he is, and we can only wish him continued progress as he goes through an incredibly difficult time.” But for the Brooks family, the harm was already inflicted, trust broken, and faith in the “LSU family” revealed to be nothing more than a slogan for the hype video.
Matt Moscona wasn’t shy when commenting on the drama involving Greg Brooks Sr. and Brian Kelly. “I empathize with Greg Senior, but I also understand Kelly’s perspective,” Matt said. Moscona is never stingy with opinions. Still, he refused to get sucked into the he-said-he-said. He bigged up Ryan Clark. “Even Ryan Clark, at that point in the interview, says, ‘What about all the other players on the team that Brian Kelly is responsible for? He’s running a Giant football program.”
Ryan Clark, one of the people at the center of this Greg Brooks Jr. fiasco, was able to bring a very uncommon amount of serenity and sensibility to bear when the atmosphere between Greg Brooks Sr. and Brian Kelly was tense. Clark, close to both the Brooks family and LSU, did not merely act as referee; he reminded everyone that, of course, Brian Kelly has a football program to manage, which is sort of like herding cats in the SEC, but that is not to say he was absent from Brooks’ flank.
Clark went on to note that he visited the hospital, where he encountered Kelly and assistant coach Frank Wilson, seeing Brooks after the surgery. Clark didn’t let Kelly off the hook for not communicating after Brooks departed Baton Rouge, but he also didn’t join the outrage bandwagon.
Trading helmets for hospital gowns
Greg Brooks Jr.’s odyssey with his brain tumor diagnosis is the sort of thing that truly pulls the curtain down on the tinsel-laden facade of college football. Here’s a player who transferred to LSU, earned the title of team captain, and was ready to handle the defense, only to find himself battling an unexpected medical challenge. Things began to go wrong when Brooks started experiencing symptoms that no athlete should ever ignore: dizziness, confusion, and an overwhelming sense that something was off. He was not only training but also playing in games while this tumor grew in his brain.
Brooks himself wrote about how exasperating and frightening it was: he’d attempt normal football maneuvers and all of a sudden feel light-headed or lose his balance, thinking, “Why can’t I do this? This isn’t me.” That’s not merely difficult, that’s frightening. By the time somebody finally considered taking him to see a specialist, it was near enough too late. The subsequent surgery aimed to be his saving grace, but it transformed into a nightmare, leading to strokes, significant neurological injury, and a challenging recovery journey.
Greg Jr. is a young man who transitioned from being in charge of LSU’s defense under the stadium lights to battling for his life in a hospital bed, all while experiencing symptoms dismissed until things got really bad. The off-field drama, with his father complaining about Brian Kelly and the LSU staff for not being supportive, just adds to the debacle.
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