![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(December 2012) |
![]() Brooks with the Chargers c. 1982 | |||||||
No. 21, 28, 20 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Position: | Running back | ||||||
Personal information | |||||||
Born: | Warner Robins, Georgia, U.S. | December 28, 1958||||||
Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||||||
Weight: | 177 lb (80 kg) | ||||||
Career information | |||||||
High school: | Warner Robins (GA) | ||||||
College: | Auburn | ||||||
NFL draft: | 1981 / Round: 1 / Pick: 24 | ||||||
Career history | |||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||
| |||||||
Career NFL statistics | |||||||
| |||||||
Player stats at PFR |
James Robert Brooks (born December 28, 1958) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football played for the Auburn Tigers. He played for four teams in the NFL, earning all four of his Pro Bowl selections with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Brooks led the Warner Robins High School Demons to both state and national championships in 1976. He graduated with the school record for rushing, a record that stood until Willie Reid broke his record years later. Brooks played college football at Auburn University from 1977 until 1980 and earned All-American status, setting school records for kickoff-return yards (1,726) and all-purpose yards (5,596) while also scoring 30 touchdowns.
Brooks was drafted with the 24th pick in the first round of the 1981 NFL draft, and played professionally with the San Diego Chargers (1981–1983), the Cincinnati Bengals (1984–1991), the Cleveland Browns (1992) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1992).
He was a key participant in two of the most famous games in NFL lore during his rookie season with the Chargers: The Epic in Miami and the Freezer Bowl. However, he started only seven games in three seasons with the Chargers, always second on the team to Chuck Muncie in rushing attempts and yards. He had only one 100-yard game with the Chargers, a 12-carry, 105-yard, three-touchdown outing against his future teammates. [1] In 1984, he was traded to the Bengals for Pete Johnson, a move still widely regarded as the best trade in Bengals franchise history, as Johnson would play only one more season in the NFL before retiring. [2] [3]
A four-time Pro Bowler (1986, 1988–1990), Brooks excelled at running, receiving and kick returning. He was noted for his ability to make yards after contact and continue fighting for extra inches while being tackled. [4] By the time he left the Bengals in 1991, he was the team's all-time leading rusher with 6,447 yards (since surpassed by Corey Dillon's 8,061 yards), and is still among the Bengals' top 15 all-time leading receivers with 297 receptions for 3,012 yards. By the time of his retirement after the 1992 season, Brooks amassed 7,962 rushing yards, 383 receptions for 3,621 receiving yards, 565 punt return yards, 2,762 kickoff return yards and scored 79 touchdowns (49 rushing and 30 receiving). Between 1968 (when John David Crow and Timmy Brown retired) and 2005 (Marshall Faulk), Brooks was the only member of the 30/30 club (30+ rushing and receiving touchdowns, accomplished by only seven players). [5] As of 2022 [update] , Brooks' 14,910 total net yards rank him #41 on the NFL's list of career all-purpose yards. [6]
Though he started every game in 1985, he and fullback Larry Kinnebrew finished the season with almost identical carry and yardage stats. His breakthrough season was 1986, which included a memorable run in a December 7 contest against the New England Patriots in which Brooks made several cutbacks, broke several tackles and dragged defenders the final five yards across the goal line for a 56-yard touchdown run. He finished the game with 163 yards rushing and 101 yards receiving, one of only two 100/100 games in Bengals history. [7] This was his sixth season in the league, but the first in which he reached 1,000 rushing yards (a then-franchise record 1,087 rushing yards) and the Pro Bowl. [8] After missing half of the 1987 season with an injury, he returned with 931 yards and career-bests in rushing touchdowns (eight) and receiving touchdowns (six) in 1988 and was instrumental in the Bengals' run to Super Bowl XXIII. In 1989, he finished with a career-best/franchise-record 1,239 rushing yards (seventh in the NFL) and again broke 1,000 yards in 1990, including a 201-yard performance against the Houston Oilers. [9] Brooks started 1991 with two games with more than 100 rushing yards, but had progressively fewer carries over the rest of the season (102 rushes for two touchdowns and a 3.3 yards-per-carry average, never once breaking 50 yards over the next 12 games). He was traded to the Browns in 1992, then to the Buccaneers midway through the season, retiring after a minor injury in the team's sixth game.
Year | Team | GP | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1981 | SD | 14 | 109 | 525 | 4.8 | 28 | 3 | 46 | 329 | 7.2 | 29 | 3 |
1982 | SD | 9 | 87 | 430 | 4.9 | 48 | 6 | 13 | 66 | 5.1 | 12 | 0 |
1983 | SD | 15 | 127 | 516 | 4.1 | 61 | 3 | 25 | 215 | 8.6 | 36 | 0 |
1984 | CIN | 15 | 103 | 396 | 3.8 | 33 | 2 | 34 | 268 | 7.9 | 27 | 2 |
1985 | CIN | 16 | 192 | 929 | 4.8 | 39 | 7 | 55 | 576 | 10.5 | 57 | 5 |
1986 | CIN | 16 | 205 | 1,087 | 5.3 | 56 | 5 | 54 | 686 | 12.7 | 54 | 4 |
1987 | CIN | 9 | 94 | 280 | 3.1 | 18 | 1 | 22 | 272 | 12.4 | 46 | 2 |
1988 | CIN | 15 | 182 | 931 | 5.1 | 51 | 8 | 29 | 287 | 9.9 | 28 | 6 |
1989 | CIN | 16 | 221 | 1,239 | 5.6 | 65 | 7 | 37 | 306 | 8.3 | 25 | 2 |
1990 | CIN | 16 | 195 | 1,004 | 5.1 | 56 | 5 | 26 | 269 | 10.3 | 35 | 4 |
1991 | CIN | 15 | 152 | 571 | 3.8 | 25 | 2 | 40 | 348 | 8.7 | 40 | 2 |
1992 | TB | 2 | 5 | 6 | 1.2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
CLE | 4 | 13 | 38 | 2.9 | 13 | 0 | 2 | -1 | -0.5 | 4 | 0 | |
Career | 162 | 1,685 | 7,962 | 4.7 | 65 | 49 | 383 | 3,621 | 9.5 | 57 | 30 |
As of 2022 [update] , Brooks holds at least five Bengals franchise records, including:
Brooks was arrested in 1999 for failure to pay child support, owing over $110,000. During proceedings, it was revealed that Brooks was illiterate, despite having received a college degree. When asked by the judge how he had graduated from Auburn, Brooks said, "I didn’t have to go to class." He served three months of a six-month sentence before being assigned to a work-release program. [10]
Lance Dwight Alworth, nicknamed "Bambi", is an American former football wide receiver who played for the San Diego Chargers of the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL) and Dallas Cowboys of the NFL. Often considered one of the greatest wide receivers of all time, he played for 11 seasons, from 1962 through 1972, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978. He was the first player inducted whose playing career was principally in the AFL. Alworth is also a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. His teammates called him Bambi because he had a baby face and could run like a deer.
Corey James Dillon is an American former football running back who played for 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Cincinnati Bengals and New England Patriots. Dillon played college football for the Washington Huskies and was selected by the Bengals in the second round of the 1997 NFL draft.
Burudi Ali Johnson is an American former professional football player who was a running back for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the fourth round of the 2001 NFL draft.
LaDainian Tarshane Tomlinson is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. After a successful college football career with the TCU Horned Frogs, the San Diego Chargers selected him as the fifth overall pick in the 2001 NFL draft. He spent nine years with the Chargers, earning five Pro Bowl appearances, three Associated Press first-team All-Pro nominations, and two NFL rushing titles. Tomlinson was also voted the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2006 after breaking the record for touchdowns in a single season. He played two further seasons with the New York Jets, before retiring. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
Ronnie G. Brown Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). After graduating from Cartersville High School in Georgia, Brown attended Auburn University to play college football for the Auburn Tigers. He and Cadillac Williams shared carries at running back, while he had 1,008 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2002, 446 yards and five touchdowns in 2003, and 913 yards and eight touchdowns in 2004. Brown finished seventh in school history with 2,707 rushing yards and fifth with 28 rushing touchdowns. He twice earned second-team All-Southeastern Conference honors in 2002 and 2004.
Thomas Roland Matte(Pronounced: MAT-tee) was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) in the 1960s and 1970s and earned a Super Bowl ring. He attended Shaw High School in East Cleveland and was an Eagle Scout. Matte was an All-American quarterback playing college football at Ohio State University.
"The Greatest Show on Turf" was a nickname for the high-flying offense of the St. Louis Rams during the 1999, 2000, and 2001 National Football League (NFL) seasons. The offense was designed by attack-oriented offensive coordinator and head coach Mike Martz who mixed an aerial attack and a run offense in an Air Coryell-style offense. The Rams' offense during these three seasons produced record scoring and yardage, three NFL MVP honors, and two Super Bowl appearances and one championship. In 2000, the team set an NFL record with 7,335 total offensive yards. Of those, 5,492 were passing yards, also an NFL team record.
In National Football League (NFL) lore, the Freezer Bowl was the 1981 AFC Championship Game between the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals. The game was played on January 10, 1982, at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium, and televised by NBC, with announcers Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen. The game, won by the Bengals, 27–7, was played in the coldest temperature in NFL history in terms of wind chill. Air temperature was −9 °F (−23 °C), but the wind chill, factoring in a sustained wind of 27 miles per hour (43 km/h), was reported as −59 °F (−51 °C) under the calculation method then in use.
Michael Turner is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Northern Illinois Huskies, earning second-team All-American honors in 2003. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the fifth round of the 2004 NFL draft, and also played in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons. He was a two-time All-Pro and a two-time Pro Bowl selection with the Falcons.
Lydell Douglas Mitchell is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1972 to 1980. During his nine-season NFL career, Mitchell played for the Baltimore Colts, San Diego Chargers and Los Angeles Rams. He played college football at Penn State.
Joe Dan Washington Jr is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Diego Chargers, Baltimore Colts, Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Falcons.
The Epic in Miami was the National Football League AFC divisional playoff game between the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins that took place on January 2, 1982 in the Miami Orange Bowl. The game, won by the Chargers in overtime, 41–38, is one of the most famous in National Football League lore because of the enormity of scoring, the conditions on the field, the performances of players on both teams, and the numerous records that were set.
Lionel "Little Train" James was an American professional football player who was a running back for the San Diego Chargers in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Auburn Tigers. Undersized at 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) and 171 pounds (78 kg), he spent his entire five-year NFL career with the Chargers from 1984 to 1988. His best year as a pro came during the 1985 season, when he set then-NFL season records for receiving yards by a running back and all-purpose yardage. He also led the American Football Conference (AFC) in receptions that year.
Pete Johnson is an American former football fullback who played for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals. He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes and was selected by the Bengals in the second round of the 1977 NFL draft.
Rex Burkhead is a former American football running back. He played college football at Nebraska and was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the sixth round of the 2013 NFL draft. After four seasons with the Bengals, Burkhead spent his next four seasons with the New England Patriots, where he appeared in consecutive Super Bowls and won Super Bowl LIII. Burkhead joined the Houston Texans in 2021, spending two seasons with them before retiring in 2024.
Melvin Gordon III is an American football running back who is a free agent. He played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, earning unanimous All-American honors and winning the Doak Walker Award as the top college running back in 2013. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft with the 15th overall pick.
Sony Michel is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons. He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs and was selected by the New England Patriots in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft. During his first three seasons with the Patriots, he was a member of the team that won Super Bowl LIII. Michel spent his next season with Los Angeles Rams in 2021, winning Super Bowl LVI, and his final season with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Joseph Tyler Mixon is an American football running back for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). Mixon played college football at Oklahoma, where he was a first-team All-Big 12, and was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 2017 NFL draft.
Cam Akers is an American football running back for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida State Seminoles.
Joshua Jacobs is an American football running back for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Alabama and was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft. Jacobs rushed for over 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons, while being named to NFL All-Rookie Team in 2019 and to his first Pro Bowl in 2020. In 2022, he led the league in rushing yards with 1,653 and became the first Raider since 1985 to surpass 2,000 scrimmage yards. After five years with the Raiders, Jacobs signed with the Packers in 2024.