When Head Coach John Harbaugh stood up in the locker room and awarded a game ball to Defensive Line Coach Clarence Brooks after the Ravens defeated the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Oct. 1, the players whooped and cheered. Brooks, the Ravens’ longest-tenured assistant, is a popular and respected figure.
But only Harbaugh and a few others knew that Brooks was being honored in part because doctors had stunned him several days earlier with the news that he had esophageal cancer.
The day after the Pittsburgh game, Brooks told the team, starting with his pupils in the defensive line meeting room.