After the NFC championship game, Brooks Reed shared a moment with Jay Campos outside the Atlanta Falcons’ locker room at the Georgia Dome.
Reed, the former University of Arizona standout, had just helped the Falcons reach the Super Bowl — the pinnacle for any professional football player. Yet it wasn’t the first thing on his mind when he greeted his former coach at Sabino High School.
“He gives me a hug and asks me if the tickets he got me were OK,” Campos said. “That’s the kind of guy he is.”
Almost everyone who participated in Reed’s rise from a Cowboy playing Pop Warner in Tucson to a Falcon participating in Sunday’s Super Bowl describes him the same way: humble, hard-working and unchanged from the kid who’d work out multiple times a day in hopes of one day playing pro ball.
“Sometimes I’ll see him at the gym,” said Dave Goodman, who coached Reed in Pop Warner and as a freshman at Sabino. “He’s still the same nice kid that he was growing up.”
Maybe that’s just the way Reed, 29, is. Or maybe it’s because making it in the NFL was never a certainty, despite Reed’s God-given gifts and his desire to become a pro football player.
Campos, who led Sabino’s football program from 2003 until last month, ranks Reed as the fourth-best player he has coached. The top three are tight end Matt Bushman, who signed with BYU in 2014; tailback Glyndon Bolasky, who attended Arizona with Reed but had to retire from football because of injuries; and quarterback-receiver Drew Dixon, who will play for the Wildcats next season.
But Reed ascends to the top in one specific, vital category.
“Work-ethic-wise, he’s definitely No. 1,” Campos said. “He never missed. He stayed late. When other people finished their workouts and were ready to go home, he was still there.”
Reed still has a presence at Sabino: He paid for a blocking sled and other equipment used by the current football team.
Seed planted
Preparing to play football isn’t nearly as fun as playing the game. It’s one of the reasons players walk away from the sport when they still have the ability to perform at a high level.
Goodman used to make his players do lunges; Reed never complained about it. As he told a reporter in Houston this week, there was a moment as a youth when he came to a realization about football.
“I was like, man, I love this game. I want to play in the NFL. I want to be great at something that I could work at every single day,” Reed said.
“I just kind of planned it in my subconscious and always worked really hard from that point. I just kind of had a different attitude.”
The work included — and still includes — every aspect of the sport, not just the fun stuff: weightlifting, drills, nutrition, treatment.
“He’s always been very focused about what he does,” said Bob Reed, Brooks’ father.
Howard Breinig, one of the most accomplished high school football coaches in Tucson history, coached Reed with Sabino’s junior-varsity team. Breinig recognized Reed’s skill set: He possessed a desirable combination of strength and speed. But Breinig had seen plenty of talented players who never made it as far as Reed has.
“He’s a dedicated human being,” Breinig said. “He never complains. He wants you to tell him what he’s doing wrong and he wants to correct it.
“A lot of kids who are really good like that, they’re a little into themselves. With Brooks, you’d never know he was any better than the lousiest kid on the team. He never asked for a favor. He just worked.”
Although he carried the ball at times as a youth — Goodman laughingly recalled a Pop Warner play that saw Reed drag about half a dozen would-be tacklers 10-12 yards down the field — he took a back seat to buddy Bolasky at Sabino. Bolasky was the star runner who earned the 2005-06 Gatorade Player of the Year award in Arizona; Reed was his blocker.
Reed came to the UA as a fullback, a three-star prospect. His career took off when the coaching staff, then under the leadership of Mike Stoops, moved him from H-back to defensive end, a position Reed also had played in high school.
Reed took to it immediately, recording a team-high eight sacks and three forced fumbles as a redshirt sophomore in 2008. He earned first-team all-conference honors as a senior in 2010, compiling a career-high 47 tackles, including 6.5 sacks.
After he became a full-time defensive end, Reed would watch highlights of Dwight Freeney on YouTube to pick up moves and techniques. Now they’re about to play together in the Super Bowl.
Houston homecoming
Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots will mark the first Super Bowl appearance of Reed’s six-year NFL career. It won’t be the first time he suits up in the home locker room at NRG Stadium.
The Houston Texans selected him in the second round of the 2011 draft. He played for them for four seasons before signing with Atlanta as a free agent in 2015.
Houston has become Reed’s adopted hometown. He met his future wife in Houston and married Natalie there in May of ’15. They live there in the offseason. So essentially, Reed is playing the biggest game of his life in his backyard.
“It doesn’t really feel like I left,” Reed told reporters. “Being here is just so surreal and crazy. To think that I’m playing in the Super Bowl in the city that drafted me into the NFL, it’s so cool.”
Bob Reed will be there to support his son as one of at least 15 family members and friends on Brooks’ guest list. Bob was a constant presence at his kids’ practices and games. Brooks’ younger siblings — twins Lucas and Katie — also played sports at Sabino. Lucas eventually became an all-conference tight end at New Mexico. Katie threw the discus and shotput for the Sabercats.
Bob has attended countless games, but he never experienced anything quite like the Jan. 22 NFC title game between the Falcons and Green Bay Packers. The crowd stood for the entire game. “The noise was unbelievable,” Bob Reed said.
He and other family members had wristbands that enabled them to go on the field after the Falcons’ 44-21 victory. Confetti fell from the Georgia Dome ceiling. Team owner Arthur Blank danced on a stage. Bob saw how happy Brooks was to have accomplished a lifelong dream born on the dusty fields of Tucson.
“He was giddy. He was ecstatic,” Bob Reed said. “He was smiling, doing pushups, hugging people. It was a great celebration.”
Later that evening, Brooks and Natalie hosted a pizza party. Nothing can compare to “those few moments after a game when you get to celebrate,” Bob said.
Soon after, for his determined son, it was back to work.
