When Hall of Fame wide receiver Sterling Sharpe’s career ended due to an injury late in the 1994 season, fellow wideout – and fellow South Carolina alum – Robert Brooks looked poised to step into his role.
He not only stepped in, he stepped up. During the Packers’ 1995 season, Brooks led the team in receiving with 102 catches for a then team-record 1,497 yards and 13 touchdowns. But early in 1996, injuries came looking for Brooks as well. He was never quite the same player following a right knee blowout that tore his ACL, MCL, meniscus and patellar tendon, although he did bounce back enough in 1997 to win NFL Comeback Player of the Year. A year later, a herniated disk would end his career.
And while his one huge season lingers in the hearts and minds of Packers fans, he might be best remembered for his contribution to an enduring Green Bay legend: the Lambeau Leap.
We all know how it started, on a fumble return by Butler in 1993 and an impromptu jump into the stands, but it was Brooks who kept it alive. (He even recorded a song about the Leap titled, “Jump in the Stands.”)
Brooks started making a habit of leaping into the crowd after touchdowns in 1995, and the more he scored, the more it caught on. Teammates started joining in, and before long, the media took note. Somewhere along the way, the term “Lambeau Leap” was coined.
Packers Team Historian Cliff Christl wrote that the first reference to the celebration he could find was in The Packer Report during that season: “Instead of slapping hands with fans after a touchdown or interception, Robert Brooks, LeRoy Butler, Mark Ingram and a few other Packer players have taken it a step, or leap, further with Packer fans seated around the end zone at Lambeau Field," the story read.
Aside from the Leap, who knows what Brooks’ career could have looked like if not for the injuries? For his career, all with the Packers except for a brief attempted comeback with the Denver Broncos, he tallied 4,276 receiving yards on 309 receptions, with 32 receiving touchdowns, not including playoffs. And that tally includes a 99-yard touchdown from Brett Favre that is still a team record.
Once his football career was finally over, Brooks went into the music business. He is now a minister and still lives in Wisconsin.
And it’s well documented that he wanted no part of Green Bay when he entered the NFL Draft.
"When I went there, I started to get to know the people," Brooks told Packers.com in 2006. "I got a sense of the history and the pride in just being a Packer. When you get a sense of that, it totally changes your mindset of Green Bay. Because there's no place, no professional franchise that can compare to playing in Green Bay. It's just not the same.
"I think Green Bay is the best professional franchise that you can play for as an athlete. Especially if you go to Green Bay and win a Super Bowl. There's no place like it."
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