{"id":385375,"date":"2026-08-30T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T15:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/385375\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T15:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T15:46:19","slug":"ex-nfl-players-reshaping-high-school-football-as-coaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/385375\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NFL players reshaping high school football as coaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES\u00a0\u2014 The sunset of his\u00a0NFL\u00a0playing career came almost 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

So what is\u00a0Bucky Brooks\u00a0doing before sunrise, unlocking the gate outside the\u00a0Granada Hills High\u00a0football field?<\/p>\n

He\u2019s getting in touch with his roots the way dozens of former\u00a0NFL\u00a0players are from coast to coast, teaching the game he loves to the latest generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it,\u201d said Brooks, 55, of coaching high school football. \u201cThe athletic part of you dies when we retire. There\u2019s nothing that gives you that same feel of being the gladiator in the ring. But this is the closest thing. Even though you\u2019re not playing, you live vicariously through their experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0USA Today, there are 128 high school head coaches around the country who once played in the\u00a0NFL. That includes\u00a0Carson Palmer, the\u00a0Heisman Trophy\u00a0winner and No. 1 overall pick from\u00a0USC, who in his debut season led\u00a0Santa Margarita\u00a0to a CIF state Open Division championship and was named MaxPrep\u2019s 2025 national coach of the year.<\/p>\n

Santa Margarita opened the season Aug. 21 by playing host to Jones High \u2014 a team coached by former Atlanta Falcons defensive back Elijah Williams. Santa Margarita defeated Jones 27-0.<\/p>\n

\"JonesJones High head coach Elijah Williams played four seasons in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons. He’s in his 11th season at Jones and has led the Tigers to state finals in 2024 and 2025. (Willie J. Allen Jr.\/Orlando Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

Back at Granada Hills, where he has coached since 2019, Brooks is looking to instill in his players some of the lessons he learned from the all-star cast of NFL coaches he played for as a defensive back \u2014 among them Marv Levy, Mike Holmgren, Tony Dungy, Marty Schottenheimer and Jon Gruden.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all feel an obligation to give back,\u201d said Brooks, who played four years in the NFL \u2014 two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. \u201cYour Pop Warner coach, your high school coach, your college coach. I want to take those same lessons people gave me and give it to the next people.\u201d<\/p>\n

That requires sacrifice. Brooks has worked as a sportswriter for Sports Illustrated and analyst for NFL Network. Now, he\u2019s a commentator for the Jaguars\u2019 TV Network, meaning he finishes a high school game and flies to where the Jaguars are playing.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, that means hopping on a plane to London after coaching a Friday night game. His assistant coaches, mostly a group of his former Granada Hills players, have to pick up the slack sometimes with the subsequent practices early in the following week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great leadership lesson for me,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned to delegate and let other people take over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmer is sure he made the right decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m where I need to be,\u201d said Palmer, whose son, Fletch, is a quarterback and junior on this season\u2019s team. \u201cI missed so much when I was playing because I was so involved in so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

After retiring in 2018, he contemplated going the route of a lot of former players and working\u00a0NFL\u00a0games as a color analyst.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost signed a contract doing TV stuff,\u201d said Palmer, whose daughter, Bries, is a freshman at the school. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be around when my kids come by my office at lunchtime, or when somebody has a stomachache and needs to take a class period to take a nap on my couch. I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SantaCarson Palmer won a Heisman Trophy at USC and starred at QB for the Bengals in the NFL. He now coaches the football team at his high school alma mater, Santa Margarita, in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. (Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re an up-and-coming quarterback, there has to be an extra layer of pressure and expectation if your father played the position at an elite level. Philip Rivers understands that. His son, Gunner, is a four-star quarterback in the class of 2027 who plays for his dad at St. Michael Catholic High in Fairhope, Alabama. The younger Rivers will be headed to North Carolina State, following in the sizable footsteps of his father.<\/p>\n

Likewise,\u00a0Philip Rivers\u00a0followed his own dad, Steve, a legendary Alabama high school coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up wanting to be my dad\u2019s quarterback, and now I\u2019m getting to coach my son and relive it all again 30 years later,\u201d said\u00a0Philip Rivers, who also has a younger son, Pete, on the team. \u201cEverything goes too dang fast. There\u2019s some long days throughout the years, but it all goes too fast. You wish you could slow it all down.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this gives Philip a better understanding of his own father.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad\u2019s in the state Hall of Fame,\u201d he said, \u201cbut he never won a state championship. His championship trophies were in his desk drawer, the letters players had written him over the years. We want them to be better men for having been in our football program. That\u2019s the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost three years ago, former\u00a0NFL\u00a0quarterback\u00a0Tim Hasselbeck\u00a0was hired as varsity football coach at\u00a0Ensworth High\u00a0in\u00a0Nashville. He gave up his job as primary game analyst for \u201cACC Primetime Football\u201d in part to coach his son, Taylor, now a quarterback at Wyoming.<\/p>\n

Coaching high school football became a family affair, with parents Don and Mary Beth selling their Boston house of 50 years and moving to\u00a0Tennessee, and Don \u2014 the former\u00a0NFL\u00a0tight end who died last year \u2014 joining his son\u2019s staff.\u00a0Matt Hasselbeck, Tim\u2019s brother and a former Super Bowl quarterback, came on board as well as Ensworth\u2019s offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all had coaches who made an incredible impact on our lives,\u201d Matt said. \u201cAnd we probably had coaches who had a negative impact as well. \u2026 I didn\u2019t seek out coaching. I said I\u2019d do a three-day clinic. I just don\u2019t remember stopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Archie Manning\u2019s count, about 30,000 high school players have been enrolled in the 30 years of the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. The weeklong camp focuses on quarterbacks and receivers, and college players from around the country serve as counselors, as do brothers Peyton, Eli and Cooper Manning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell Peyton and Eli, \u2018Listen, when these kids get home, their granddaddy is going to ask them, \u2018Did you meet Peyton and Eli?\u2019 \u201d said Archie of his two\u00a0NFL\u00a0quarterback sons. \u201cAnd I want them to say, \u2018Yes.\u2019 OK, so get your butt around to everyone. They try to get in front of every kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids we deal with are just so eager and excited, and that\u2019s what makes it so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone, it seems, is getting an education.<\/p>\n

\"JacksonvilleBucky Brooks, right, celebrates in the stands with fans after a Jacksonville Jaguars’ win in Jacksonville in 1996. Brooks now works for the Jags. During the week, though, he coaches the football team at Granada Hills High in California. (Will Dickey\/The Florida Times\u2013Union\/AP file)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES\u00a0\u2014 The sunset of his\u00a0NFL\u00a0playing career came almost 30 years ago. So what is\u00a0Bucky Brooks\u00a0doing before sunrise,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3745,139,141,140,76046,110],"class_list":["post-385375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-high-school-sports","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}