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When it comes to NFL franchise faces, quarterbacks are often the first players that come to mind, e.g. Tom Brady with the New England Patriots or Brett Favre with the Green Bay Packers. However, for the San Diego Chargers in the 1990s and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2000s, these teams were best epitomized by linebackers Junior Seau and Derrick Brooks, respectively. Each a native son, Seau and Brooks were both the heart and soul of their team for well over a decade; moreover, they were perennial Pro Bowl and All-Pro linebackers who can each stake a claim to being a top-five player in franchise history. Looking back on the long and storied careers of these two Hall of Fame linebackers naturally brings about the question:
Who was better – Derrick Brooks or Junior Seau?
The Beginning
Neither Brooks nor Seau had to travel far for their football careers – from their roots in football hotbeds, both players stayed local at blue-blood college programs and parlayed standout NCAA careers into first-round draft picks by hometown teams.
Brooks was born and raised in the football-crazy state of Florida and was a high school star, leading his team to the state playoff semifinals as a senior and later being named to the Florida High School Athletic Association All-Century Team. He chose to stay in-state for college football at Florida State, where he was a 3x First Team All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) selection, a 2x First Team All-American, and an ACC Defensive Player of the Year while also leading the Seminoles to a national title as a junior. After spending four years at Florida State, Brooks was drafted 28th overall in the first round of the 1995 NFL Draft by the Buccaneers (who also drafted fellow Hall of Fame defensive player Warren Sapp that same year) and put together a solid rookie season with 79 total tackles, 1.0 sack, and 2 forced fumbles.
Meanwhile, Seau was born in southern California, but then lived in American Samoa for a few years before returning to the San Diego area, where he starred in football, basketball, and track and field in high school. For football, he played linebacker and tight end, and was the league’s offensive MVP as a senior while leading the team to a San Diego 2A championship. Like Brooks, Seau stayed local for college, attending the storied USC program, though he sat out his freshman year due to academic ineligibility. Nevertheless, he became a First Team All-Pacific 10 Conference (Pac-10) selection, Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year, and a First Team All-American in 1989, thus prompting him to declare for the NFL after his junior season. In the 1990 NFL Draft, Seau was drafted fifth overall in the first round by the local Chargers and started immediately, racking up 85 total tackles and 1.0 sack as a rookie.
Career Comparison
For well over a decade each, Brooks and Seau were pillars of consistency from their linebacker positions, racking up over 100 tackles per season while earning Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections year in and year out.
As one of the key players in the famed Tampa Cover 2 defense, Brooks quickly became one of the league’s best linebackers at the weakside position. After recording 133 total tackles in 1996, he earned the first of 10 straight Pro Bowl selections (11x overall) and was also a Second Team All-Pro selection in 1997 on the strength of 145 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, and 2 interceptions; this was followed by a league-leading and career-best 158 total tackles (including a league-best and career-high 123 solo tackles) with an interception in 1998 to again earn Second Team All-Pro honors. Brooks soared to even greater heights at the turn of the century with back-to-back First Team All-Pro seasons in 1999 and 2000:
- 1999: 153 total tackles, 2.0 sacks, and 4 interceptions
- 2000: 146 total tackles, 1.0 sack, and an interception; also scored his first career touchdown and earned Walter Payton Man of the Year honors
Following another Second Team All-Pro season in 2001, Brooks was named Defensive Player of the Year in 2002 with 118 total tackles, 1.0 sack, a career-high 5 interceptions and a league-leading 4 defensive touchdowns (3 interception returns plus a fumble recovery return) He then proceeded to break Lee Roy Selmon’s team record with a seventh consecutive Pro Bowl appearance in 2003 and followed with two more First Team All-Pro seasons in 2004 (137 total tackles, career-high 3.0 sacks, and an interception) and 2005 (125 total tackles, 3.0 sacks, and an interception). Though he had another 100+ tackle season in 2007, Brooks saw his Pro Bowl streak come to an end; he nevertheless made his 11th and final appearance in 2008 despite his worst statistical season (only 73 tackles). With the Buccaneers in rebuilding mode, Brooks was released after the season and officially retired in 2010, having played his entire career with Tampa Bay and never missing a game in 14 seasons (224 straight games played).
Similarly, Seau earned the first of a dozen straight Pro Bowl nods in 1991 with 129 total tackles and a career-high 7.0 sacks (matched on two other occasions). He would be a model of consistency on defense for the Chargers – between 1991 and 2001, Seau appeared in at least 14 games each season and recorded no fewer than 95 total tackles in any year; this included three consecutive First Team All-Pro selections from 1992 to 1994:
- 1992: 102 total tackles, 4.5 sacks, and 2 interceptions
- 1993: 129 total tackles and 2 interceptions
- 1994: a career-high 155 tackles (including a league-leading and career-best 124 solo tackles) with 5.5 sacks
After scoring the only defensive touchdown of his career in 1995, Seau earned another First Team All-Pro selection in 1996 with 138 total tackles, 7.0 sacks, and 2 interceptions. A few years later, he was once again First Team All-Pro on the strength of 115 total tackles and 3.5 sacks; entering the 2000s, Seau had his final First Team All-Pro season in 2000 (123 total tackles, 3.5 sacks, and 2 interceptions), and his final Pro Bowl season at age 33 in 2002 (84 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, and an interception).
In 2003, an aging Seau was traded to the Miami Dolphins for a conditional draft pick and posted another strong year with his new team, racking up 96 total tackles and 3.0 sacks. However, injuries limited him to only 15 games played over the next two seasons, the first time he missed any substantial playing time in his career. Upon being released by the Dolphins in 2006, Seau announced his retirement at age 37, but quickly signed with the New England Patriots just four days later. During his lone full season with the Patriots in 2007, he recorded 73 total tackles, 3.5 sacks, and a career-high 3 interceptions, but only played 11 games over the next couple of years and retired for good in 2009 at age 40; sadly, Seau would commit suicide just a few years later due to the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
With the advantage of six additional NFL seasons, Seau played 44 more career games than Brooks, though as mentioned, the latter never missed a game in his career. As would be expected from two highly productive players, this results in Seau amassing more career tackles; he was also a significantly more dangerous pass rusher, as evidenced by their sack differential. Despite the gap in career games played, however, Brooks actually has more career assisted tackles, more 100+ tackle seasons (12 vs. 8) and was far more adept at causing turnovers (almost twice as many interceptions plus forced fumbles) and converting them into touchdowns. In terms of awards and accolades, Seau has slightly more Pro Bowl selections (12 vs. 11) and All-Pro nods (6 vs. 5), though Brooks is the one with a Defensive Player of the Year award to his name. Given their dominant and lengthy careers, it should come as no surprise that both Brooks (2014) and Seau (posthumously in 2015) were first-ballot Hall of Famers.
Regular Season Statistics
| Derrick Brooks | Player | Junior Seau |
| 14 (1995-2008) | Seasons | 20 (1990-2009) |
| 224 | Games Played | 268 |
| 1,300 | Solo Tackles | 1,522 |
| 413 | Assisted Tackles | 325 |
| 13.5 | Sacks | 56.5 |
| 25 | Interceptions | 18 |
| 24 | Forced Fumbles | 11 |
| 7 | Defensive Touchdowns | 1 |
| 11x | Pro Bowls | 12x |
| 5x | All-Pro | 6x |
| 1x | Super Bowls | – |
| 1x Defensive POY, 1x Walter Payton Man of the Year | Other Awards | 1x Walter Payton Man of the Year |
| 2014 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2015 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
In addition to their individual greatness at linebacker, both Brooks and Seau led their teams to the Super Bowl in their respective primes, though only Brooks was successful in winning the Lombardi Trophy.
Brooks made seven career playoff appearances with Tampa Bay, primarily in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with those teams often characterized by a stifling defense and an anemic offense. After trading for head coach Jon Gruden, the Buccaneers were able to put it all together in 2002 to reach Super Bowl XXXVII vs. league MVP Rich Gannon and the Oakland Raiders (the team Gruden was acquired from). Tampa Bay crushed Oakland 48-21 in the Super Bowl, forcing Gannon into a Super Bowl-record 5 interceptions, including 3 touchdown returns; Brooks was spectacular, totaling 7 tackles and intercepting Gannon for a 44-yard touchdown that essentially sealed the victory.
In his five total postseason trips (3x with the Chargers, 2x with the Patriots), Seau’s most notable moments came in 1994. First, in the AFC Championship Game vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, he racked up 16 total tackles in a 17-13 win to lead San Diego to its first Super Bowl. However, San Diego was demolished by Steve Young and the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX by a 49-26 score; individually, Seau had a strong performance with 10 total tackles and a sack.
Playoff Statistics
| Derrick Brooks | Player | Junior Seau |
| 11 | Games Played | 10 |
| 74 | Solo Tackles | 45 |
| 20 | Assisted Tackles | 14 |
| 0.5 | Sacks | 2.0 |
| 2 | Interceptions | 1 |
| 1 | Forced Fumbles | – |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; whereas Brooks was incredibly durable and consistent in never missing an NFL game, Seau battled a number of injuries later in his career and repeated head trauma ultimately contributed to his untimely death. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams, of which Seau and Brooks are on for the 1990s and 2000s teams, respectively), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Derrick Brooks | Player | Junior Seau |
| 1997-2006 | Decade of Dominance | 1991-2000 |
| 160 | Games Played | 155 |
| 1,006 | Solo Tackles | 1,058 |
| 313 | Assisted Tackles | 158 |
| 12.5 | Sacks | 43.5 |
| 23 | Interceptions | 13 |
| 17 | Forced Fumbles | 9 |
| 7 | Defensive Touchdowns | 1 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Equally productive over their decades of dominance, Brooks and Seau essentially follow their overall career comparisons – the former racked up more tackles and forced more turnovers, while the latter likewise had well over 1,000 tackles and was better at applying pressure to the quarterback.
My Thoughts
Some football players have very long careers, others have a few great seasons; what makes Derrick Brooks and Junior Seau such legendary linebackers is the fact that they were both incredible for an extended period of time. One of the common arguments against Brooks is that he was a product of the system he played in and greatly benefited from the defensive talent around him (the aforementioned Sapp, pass rusher Simeon Rice, cornerback Ronde Barber, safety John Lynch, etc.), but I would say that the performance of any athlete in a team sport is a combination of individual talent and circumstance and that should not detract from Brooks’ accomplishments, e.g. would Tom Brady be arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history if he had not been drafted by the New England Patriots and played for two decades with Bill Belicheck? However, between the Dan Fouts-led “Air Coryell” era and the transcendent greatness of LaDainian Tomlinson in the 2000s, Seau was unquestionably the leader of the Chargers and arguably the league’s best linebacker for a decade, so I have to give him the edge over Brooks.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Junior Seau
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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