Barrett Brooks Hit a Three-Pointer

Sunday was my favorite son’s birthday.

That’s Ed during his pre-school days in Fort Lauderdale during the 1970s.

To starts things off, we had a little family breakfast at the Country Squire Diner in Broomall. It was just five of us – my favorite son, his girlfriend, her super-genius kid, my favorite grandson, and yours truly.

Our waitress was the frisky Karolina who spoke with an accent. We at first thought the accent sounded Russian – but upon further listening we decided it wasn’t quite Russian.

I said it couldn’t be Polish because I was wearing a Polska shirt and she never mentioned it. I’m 100 percent Polish – born here – my grandparents were off the boat.

As breakfast progressed – a breakfast burrito won the coin-flip over an omelet – we narrowed her down. My favorite son’s girlfriend suggested Slavic and my favorite grandson mentioned the Ukraine.

Breakfast was quick and good, and then it was time to leave. We were sort of in a hurry because three of them were going to Cobbs Creek to play golf.

I was wearing a jacket over top of my Polska shirt. When I looked down, I noticed that the writing was partially obscured. So I opened the jacket all the way to reveal POLSKA – and Karolina jumped on it. She was, in fact, Polish and we had a nice but quick chat about my family and her family.

And when it was time to leave, we split in three different directions – my favorite grandson to a lacrosse game, the other three to Cobbs Creek, and I went home to do other stuff.

Pat Gallen

On the way home, I flipped on The Fanatic and caught Pat Gallen and Barrett Brooks near the end of a call with a caller who I think was a Cleveland Browns fan. They were discussing the two best players in Browns history. Jim Brown naturally popped out immediately, but they were puzzled about a second. They ran out a few lame names.

I quickly tweeted “Bobby Mitchell – Browns great” to Barrett – and Barrett responded just as quickly.

I don’t think Ozzie Newsome belongs in the same conversation – a great GM but just god as a player. So I expanded on Bobby Mitchell.

As I was listening to Pat and Barrett chat with callers, I knew there was someone I was forgetting – and then it hit me.

Barrett Brooks

I discovered Barrett Brooks on the radio airwaves some time during last football season. For a dumb offensive lineman, he really knows his football and articulates his knowledge well. I enjoy listening to him. Problem is: I don’t know his schedule. Therefore, I don’t know when he’s on and don’t get to tune him in that often.

Ditto with Pat Gallen. I like him as well, but don’t know when he’s on either.

In case your memory’s a little hazy, the Eagles picked Barrett Brooks in the second round of the 1995 NFL draft – the 58^th overall pick – and he played for the Birds for five seasons. He started 46 games – protecting the likes of Randall Cunningham, Rodney Peete, Ty Detmer, Bobby Hoying, Koy Detmer, and Rodney Peete – and opening holes for Ricky Watters, Charlie Garner, and Duce Staley.

After the Eagles, Barrett spent two seasons with the Detroit Lions, missed a year, and played in Green Bay for one season. He then capped his career with two seasons in Pittsburgh – which included an appearance in Super Bowl XL when the Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 at Ford Field in Detroit.

I’ve had a Twitter account for a couple of years now, but it’s only been the last few months that I’ve begun to learn how to use it. Still have a lot to learn, but I’m figuring it out and enjoying the new experience.

Anyway, I listen to sports talk six days a week and try to communicate with many of the on-air personalities. I’ve been watching sports since I was four years old and have a lot of experiences to share. I try to pass along germane comments about what they;re discussing at that moment. Based on the way they respond to my comments, I rate them from zero to three. Some of them go on to become social-media friends and others do not.

Here’s the system I use to rate them . . .

• First – Do they respond?

If they don’t respond, they get no points. They’re just a little too big for the common man – i.e. me. I’ll give them another chance somewhere down the line. Perhaps they were somewhat overwhelmed at the moment. But if they don’t respond a second time, I write them off and stop listening to them. Lotta fish in the sea and plenty of other things to do.

• Second – If they do respond, they get one point – even if their response is a reflex. At least they care enough to respond to someone who may be a fan.

• Third – If they do respond – and their response is pertinent to my comment – they get two points. They care – and they’re sufficiently down to earth to engage their listeners in conversation.

And I do have a fourth category, which I’ll get to momentarily. But let’s recap.

Barrett Brooks had already scored two points with me. One point when he responded and a second point when his response was pertinent to my comment. We had something to say to each other – and then in the midst of our conversation came another voice – someone calling herself Boss Lady.

So I checked the Boss Lady’s profile and found it was Barrett’s wife – which leads to my next category.

• Fourth – If someone responds – and someone else close to them also responds – they are la crème de la crème and they get the full three points. They’re the rare birds – caring individuals with close-knit ties who care about them.

You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that someone calling herself Boss Lady on Twitter has both a solid self-image and a fine sense of humor, so I decided to fool around a little.