LSU coach Brian Kelly denied severing contact with ex-player Greg Brooks Jr. and his family as the former Tiger team captain battled brain cancer and the effects of an emergency surgery. At his signing day press conference, the LSU coach called the claims made by the Brooks family “factually incorrect”.
“We had somebody from my staff that was there virtually every single day,” Kelly said on Wednesday. “We love Greg. We love him for the person that he is, for the competitor that he is and the battler that he is and can only wish him continued progress as he goes through an incredibly difficult time.”
Kelly’s statement comes fewer than 24 hours after Brooks’ family told Good Morning America they haven’t heard from anyone on the Tigers’ coaching staff since October 2023. Brooks sued the university and a Louisiana hospital for negligence in their treatment of a career-ending brain tumor.
“My son almost lost his life, coach. Where were you?” Brooks’ father Greg Brooks Sr. asked on GMA. “Forget about football. Pick up the phone and say you love the kid, man.”
Kelly said the elder Brooks’ words “struck a nerve” with him.
“It hit my heart,” Kelly said. “Because that’s not why I’m in this business. I’ve been in it for our players, will always be in it for our players. It rattled me that somebody could possibly be so factually incorrect in stating that I was not part of Greg Brooks Jr.’s care and support. The support was the entire university, the entire community. I needed to make sure that record was clear.”
Brooks Jr.’s lawsuit claims he passed out during a team practice, then vomited minutes later in front of his coaches and athletic trainers. It also alleges an LSU athletic trainer told Brooks Jr. he had vertigo and cleared him to return to practice. According to the filing, Brooks Jr. was told by LSU’s coaching staff that he could lose his starting role if he did not participate in practice as he dealt with various symptoms before the tumor’s discovery.
It wasn’t until 39 days after the symptoms began that the team made an appointment with the neurologist who discovered the brain tumor, according to the family.
Brooks Sr. claims he wasn’t notified of his son’s condition until emergency surgery was imminent.
“The one call that I received was, ‘I need you to get here. Your son is having emergency surgery tomorrow morning,'” he told GMA.
After the surgery, Brooks developed a condition known as posterior fossa syndrome, which impacts communication, motor skills and mood. He was transferred to a hospital in Memphis and spent nine months in what the lawsuit calls “protracted hospitalization, rehabilitation and recovery.”
The Brooks family says he had to relearn how to eat, write and speak following the surgery and requires daily speech and occupational therapies.
Brooks Jr. played at Arkansas from 2019-21 before transferring to LSU in 2022 and shining in the Tigers’ secondary. He played in two games during the 2023 season before the brain tumor was discovered.
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