TAMPA, Fla. — Derrick Brooks, one of the top players in Tampa Bay history, was cut by the Buccaneers on Wednesday in a purge of the team’s veterans.
“Right now, like all of you guys, I’m just trying to get a feel for it all, trying to come to grips with it,” the 11-time Pro Bowl selection said. “I don’t even know what to think.”
Brooks, the NFL defensive player of the year when Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl after the 2002 season, was among five players cut, four of them older than 32-year-old Raheem Morris, the team’s new head coach.
The others were wide receivers Joey Galloway and Ike Hilliard, running back Warrick Dunn and linebacker Cato June. The 29-year-old June is the only player under 30 and the only one younger than Morris.
“I am very fortunate to have had the chance to work with him and learn from him,” Morris said of Brooks, 36. “Those who played with him and coached him are better because of it.”
The releases save more than $10 million in salary-cap space for a team that already is close to $50 million under the projected cap of $123 million. General manager Mark Dominik said the object of the cuts was less to save money than to get the team younger.
Of the team’s core veterans, only cornerback Ronde Barber, who will turn 34 in April, survived the purge.
