Barry Macey Brooks (born March 2, 1975) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

wide receiver in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

and

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

. He was also a co-owner and wide receivers coach for the

Kane County Dawgs The Kane County Dawgs were a professional indoor American football team based in Kane County, Illinois. The team joined the Continental Indoor Football League in 2013 as an expansion team. The Dawgs were one of three indoor football teams based i ...

of the

Continental Indoor Football League The Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) was an indoor football league based along the Midwestern United States region that played nine seasons from 2006 to 2014. It began play in April 2006 as the Great Lakes Indoor Football League (GLI ...

. He played college football at

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

Early years

Brooks attended Kecoughtan High School, where he was a four-sport letterman (football, baseball, basketball and track). As a senior, he tallied 27 receptions for 620 yards and 8

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...

s, while receiving All-area, All-Peninsula district, All-Eastern region and honorable-mention All-state honors at wide receiver. He was the runner up to

Allen Iverson Allen Ezail Iverson (; born June 7, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "the Answer", he played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iver ...

for the Daily Press Peninsula Athlete of the year award. He was an All-district selection in baseball, helping his team reach the state finals. He also helped the basketball team win the regional title.

College career

Brooks accepted a football scholarship from

. As a true freshman, he appeared in 10 games, tallying 4 receptions for 92 yards. As a sophomore, he became a starter at wide receiver, posting 26 receptions (second on the team), 552 receiving yards (led the team), 21.2 yards per reception (second in school history) and 5

s (led the team). He had 135 receiving yards against

Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a public university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight Undergraduate education, undergraduate colleges as well as a college of Postgr ...

. As a junior, he registered 32 receptions (third on the team), 542 yards and 6

s (second on the team). He had 4 receptions for 87 yards and 2 touchdowns, including the winning score with 37 seconds left, in a 38-31 win against

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

. As a senior, he posted 56 receptions (second on the team) and 828 receiving yards (third in school history), while breaking the school record for most

s in a single-season with 14. He collected 8 receptions and 3 receiving touchdowns (tied the school record) against

McNeese State University McNeese State University is a public university in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Founded in 1939 as Lake Charles Junior College, it was renamed McNeese Junior College after John McNeese, an early local educator. The present name was adopted in 1970. M ...

. He also had 3 receiving touchdowns against

. He tallied 5 catches for 121 yards and one touchdown against

New Hampshire University The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College ...

. He made 7 receptions for 127 yards and 2 touchdowns over

Villanova University Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Pen ...

. He finished his college career with 118 receptions (fourth in school history), 2,014 yards (third in school history) and 25

s (school record). In

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

, he played

right field A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In t ...

for three seasons, starting 119 out of 145 games. As a freshman, he hit for a .307 average, 7 doubles, 4 triples, 4 home runs and 21 RBIs. As a sophomore, he hit for a .266 average, 10 doubles, one triple, 5 home runs and 27 RBIs, while being a part of the team that won the CAA regular season title and advanced to the NCAA South regional. As a junior, he started 51-of-55 contests, hitting for a .298 average, 13 doubles, 3 triples, 5 home runs and 34 RBIs. He was drafted twice by

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

, in the second round of the 1993 MLB Amateur Draft by the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

and in the 55th round of the 1996 Amateur Draft by the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expa ...

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Brooks was selected by the

in the fourth round (127th overall) of the

1997 NFL Draft The 1997 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 19–20, 1997, at the Paramount T ...

. He was impressing during training camp until breaking his right forearm three places during the fourth quarter of a 34-31 win over the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

. He was placed on the

injured reserve list The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

on August 27. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, he was a candidate for the second receiver role opposite

Michael Irvin Michael Jerome Irvin (born March 5, 1966) is an American sports commentator and former professional football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 2007, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fam ...

, but had problems with consistency and was waived on August 31 to make room for wide receiver

Patrick Jeffers Patrick Christopher Jeffers (born February 2, 1973) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys, and Carolina Panthers. With the Broncos, he won Super Bowl XXXII over Brett F ...

Chicago Bears

On September 1,

, he was signed by the

to their practice squad. On October 7, he was promoted to the active roster. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

, he registered 14 passes for 160 yards in the first 9 games (2 starts), before suffering a knee injury and being placed on the

on November 9. He wasn't re-signed after the season.

Oakland Raiders

On April 21,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

, he was signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

by the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

after being out of football for a year. He was released on June 15.

Coaching career

In 2012, Brooks joined the ownership group of the

, an expansion franchise of the

. He also served as the team's wide receivers coach, as well as strength and conditioning coordinator. The team would only play one game in its history, as the following week the league announced on their website that the franchise was "indefinitely suspending operations" to protect the integrity of the league.

References

External links

Briefs: Brooks To Jmu, But Not To Giants
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Macey 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Hampton, Virginia Players of American football from Virginia American football wide receivers James Madison Dukes football players James Madison Dukes baseball players Dallas Cowboys players Chicago Bears players