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Wednesday, November 12, 1997

Wide receiver Macey Brooks deals with life on injured reserve

By Josie Karp / Knight-Ridder Newspapers

IRVING, Texas -- Even as he was being helped off the field after breaking his right forearm in the Cowboys' second-to-last preseason game, rookie wide receiver Macey Brooks was thinking about the future.

He was already worried about how the injury would affect his spot on the Cowboys' roster. A fourth-round pick from James Madison, Brooks established a goal of making the team when he arrived in training camp.

In the moment he was injured, he thought that goal might evaporate.

"The actual injury wasn't that disappointing," Brooks said. "But I was scared I was going to get cut because of it. The bone can heal, but getting cut, that would have been more of an injury than the actual one."

Just as quickly, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones assured him the Cowboys still wanted a 6-foot-5 athlete of his caliber around. Jones said this before the preseason game was even over. Still uncertain, Brooks later consulted trainer Jim Maurer with his fears. Maurer was reassuring.

The Cowboys put Brooks on injured reserve Aug. 27, eight days after he had surgery to insert a plate and screws into the radius bone of his right arm. Being placed on injured reserved meant Brooks made the team, but it also meant not playing this season.

And while not playing, Brooks has spent the year in a strange position, as an insider treading around the outside of the Cowboys' circle.

Brooks has a locker in the Cowboys' locker room, right next to Michael Irvin. Brooks' credentials -- along with former Redskins wideout Gary Clark he is one of three receivers who topped the 2,000-yard receiving mark in their James Madison careers -- are described in the player update press release the public relations department puts out every week. Brooks, No. 82, is listed right after tight end Scott Galbraith (81) and before wide receiver Anthony Miller (83).

"I feel like I'm part of the team, one of the guys," Brooks said. "But it is different because I'm not really out there practicing and playing."

He comes to the team's Valley Ranch practice facility every day. His arm is mostly healed, and in the morning he works out, lifting weights and riding a stationary bike. Afterward, he eats lunch and attends meetings with the other wide receivers.

Not much, Brooks says, is directed his way during the group sessions.

"I'm just going to learn the system of going to the meetings, being on time for the meetings," Brooks said. "It's not necessarily what's said in the meetings, but just going through the system."

He goes to practice to watch, not participate.

He stands on the sidelines with the other injured players during Cowboys home games, dressed in a Cowboys T-shirt and jeans.

"It's fun being a Dallas Cowboy," Brooks said. "It's not necessarily fun standing on the sidelines."

In fact, Brooks admits it can be kind of tedious.

He is not used to the inactivity. Brooks was not only a standout football player in college, but a three-time letter-winner as an outfielder in baseball. He was twice selected in the Major League Baseball amateur draft, once in the second round as a senior in high school by the San Francisco Giants and in the 55th round of the 1996 draft by the Kansas City Royals.

"I'm bored," Brooks said. "There's nothing I can do about it. I do have a job ... What I have to do, my workout, is done in about 2-1/2 hours. Then I have the rest of the day to just watch. I watch (Irvin). I watch his ritual."

Next year, Brooks hopes, he will actually get to stop watching and start playing.

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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