Jonathon Brooks will make Panthers debut with family and late father in his heart
Jonathon Brooks doesn’t know how he’ll feel once Sunday comes, once his long-awaited debut for the Carolina Panthers is here.
Same goes for Jonathon’s brother, Jordon.
Same goes for his mother, Jennifer Donovan, too.
The same probably is true for the throngs of people in Hallettsville, Texas, who’ve been reading all the injury news and calling anyone and everyone they know in Charlotte to get the latest update on their hometown hero.
There’s one person who the family has been wondering about, specifically, though. He’s been the subject of the question Jennifer, Jordon and Jonathon have asked more and more lately, as the Panthers’ contest with the Kansas City Chiefs at 1 p.m. Sunday in Bank of America Stadium approaches.
What would Dad think?
“It’s funny because Jordon and I, we say that a lot, too,” Donovan told The Charlotte Observer over the phone earlier this week. “We just really wonder what Skip would be saying. How would he be reacting?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Jordon began. He then laughed. “I mean, well, I do know.”
James “Skip” Brooks would be happy, the son said.
“And I can only imagine how happy he’d be.”
When Jonathon Brooks makes his NFL debut Sunday, he’ll be playing for a lot of people. The second-round draft pick, who has missed the first chunk of his rookie season recovering from an ACL tear he suffered Nov. 11 of last year, will be playing for his friends. He’ll be playing for his teammates.
He’ll be playing for his mother, who helped raise her shy kid from a small southern Texas town who has a gift for finding the open field. He’ll be playing for his brother, who he used to ride bikes with and jump on trampolines with and played living room football with until the end zone couches couldn’t take anymore.
He’ll also be playing for his father, who fueled his football dream, who died in 2022 but who Brooks is convinced has been watching over him since.
“I feel like I play for a bigger reason,” Jonathon said. “I play for God, my family.”
As he always has.
Even when it wasn’t easy.
The 3 touchdowns the Brooks family won’t forget
Ask about Jonathon, and there are three trips to the end zone that stick out in the Brooks family’s collective memory. It’s not hard to see why.
The first came when Jonathon was a freshman at Hallettsville High. Jordon, then a senior, remembers it well. It was the seventh week of the 2017 football season, and Jonathon, who’d been tearing it up at the JV level, had gotten called up to varsity. The offense was less than 5 yards away from the end zone.
For years, Jordon had seen what others hadn’t. That’s what happens when you’re two of nine grandchildren, part of a big family that featured three uncles and five aunts on Dad’s side and three uncles on Mom’s. It’s also what happens when you’re the son of Skip.
Skip Brooks was born and raised in Shiner, Texas, a slightly bigger town than neighboring Hallettsville that is known for its Shiner Bock beer. He was a football player back in the day and used to tease his kids that he was a great running back, too — that they’re lucky they didn’t have video to show how elusive he was. Skip loved his boys and loved pushing them in their shared passion for football. He coached them at times when they were running around in the community’s youth leagues.
Jordon acknowledges that “I know he’s my brother and all” but “the way he could see the field was insane at a young age.” And that’s why when coach called a handoff-counter-right on that Friday night in the fall of 2017, Jordon knew what would happen: a touchdown. With no planned celebration, Jonathon just sprinted to his brother, who’d already jogged to his position as a blocker on the PAT team, and jumped up and celebrated with a shoulder bump. A newspaper photographer captured it mid-air; that’s one of Jennifer’s favorite pictures in her scrapbook, she said.
“I almost wish they were closer in age and could have more time playing together because it was just really a lot of fun,” Jennifer said. “Everybody in town was super excited.”
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The second memorable touchdown came four years later, while Jonathon was at Texas. A lot had happened in those four years. He’d go on long road trips with his father and brother — from San Antonio to Florida to California — to play football and get people to see him play. As a sophomore, Jonathon was offered a scholarship to Texas. As a senior, he lived up to that billing, putting up stats that made eyes across the country pop: 3,530 yards and 62 touchdowns on 350 carries. Who is this guy, and where is Hallettsville?
That second special touchdown came late in the fourth quarter in a game against Rice. The Longhorns were on the good side of a blowout. Brooks took a handoff from the shotgun, ran left and sliced through the defense for a 17-yard score. That score was the only one he got in the 2021 season, when he backed up Bijan Robinson, now with the Atlanta Falcons. It was also the only collegiate touchdown his father saw.
Skip Brooks passed away March 28, 2022, during a spring practice of Jonathon’s sophomore year. Kidney disease ran in the family, and he was on and off dialysis for years. A few months after restarting dialysis in December 2021, he underwent surgery, and complications from that surgery formed a blood clot, which ultimately killed him. The loss of Skip was an incalculable one for a Shiner community who adored him and a devastating one for the family who loved him.
That leads us to the third touchdown — and to the many more thereafter. Jonathon and Jordon, a few weeks after the death of their father, each got tattoos on their forearms that read the date March 28, 2022 in roman numerals with “Dad” emblazoned over it.
Every time Jonathon stomps into paydirt now — and every time he will in the future — the shy, small-town Texas kid taps his forearm, as if he’s ringing Skip’s heavenly doorbell, and points to the sky.
‘To finally live out his dream’
You’re probably familiar with Jonathon Brooks from here. After waiting two seasons to be the premier back at Texas — behind talents Roschon Johnson and Robinson — he broke out like everyone figured he would as a redshirt sophomore. In 11 games that 2023 season, he finished with 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing, enough to solidify him as one of the best running backs in the country.
That 11th game, against TCU, Brooks tore his right ACL. That meant no NFL Scouting Combine. No Senior Bowl appearances. But that didn’t stunt Brooks’ NFL stock. The Panthers selected Brooks in the second round of this year’s draft, making him the first running back taken off the board. And despite reports of his timeline being ready by training camp — that it was a complete tear, making the recovery process potentially less complicated — the Panthers’ brass made it clear that they were content taking their time with Brooks.
That time almost came two weeks ago, when Brooks was activated to the 53-man roster. But on Sunday, that time will finally come: Panthers coach Dave Canales said that he “fully expects” Brooks to make his debut against the Chiefs — and it’s possible to expect him to get more touches than he otherwise might, with typical third-down back Miles Sanders still nursing an ankle injury from Week 10.
It might not be a lot of touches, of course. Panther running backs not-named Chuba Hubbard have only earned 42 rushes through 10 games. But the most memorable moments for Jonathon haven’t come in the biggest seasons, after all. They’ve come in the smaller moments. They’ve all involved his family, too: as a freshman in high school celebrating with his older brother; as a freshman at Texas scoring the last touchdown Skip saw; as a player now, every time he hits the end zone and points to his father.
To Brooks, family is everything. And everyone can tell.
“It would be amazing,” Ja’Tavion Sanders said Monday. The jovial rookie tight end said this when he was asked how he might feel when Jonathon — his Texas Longhorn teammate and next-door locker buddy who considers himself an honorary member of the Brooks family — finally makes his NFL debut. He said it in earshot of Brooks, who could only smile and shake his head as Sanders bragged on him.
“All the trials and tribulations, and then him putting all the work in just to get back to this point and to ultimately have his debut, to finally live out his dream that he’s worked so hard for, I’ll be so excited,” Sanders continued. “Hopefully I’m in when he gets that first carry so I’m blocking for him.”
Jonathon’s mother feels the same. Jordon does as well. They, too, have thought about Skip a lot — whether that be while walking their two golden doodles, Nala and Nova, or while Jordon chips away at getting his commercial driver’s license. Skip, after all, was an 18-wheel truck driver and carried lumber and pipes across the country while always finding ways to prioritize one of his joys: watching his sons play football.
As Sunday approaches, the question gets louder:
How would Dad feel?
“I wonder that,” Jennifer said. “Because he was kind of an introvert. He didn’t show a whole lot. Didn’t say a whole lot, sometimes even. But I do want to believe that he would have some tears. I do. Just proud. Just feeling really happy that his child has done this. And he pushed it and wanted it so bad for him. I think he would probably have some tears. He might wipe them real quick so nobody sees. But I think he would be feeling quite a lot.”
Skip would have every right to.
He has every right to.
As does his son.
This story was originally published November 21, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
