LSU coach Brian Kelly shares response to former captain Greg Brooks Jr. lawsuit

Coach Brian Kelly was asked Monday whether he had any comment or response regarding a lawsuit filed against him and other coaches and university training and medical staffers by former LSU team captain Greg Brooks Jr.

The legal filing, first reported Friday by Yahoo! Sports, accuses negligence in the handling of a brain tumor discovered early last season that effectively ended the defensive back’s playing career and left him with a lengthy, still-ongoing recovery that includes him still being unable to walk now more than a year after his emergency surgery.

“I think it’s well-known and it’s talked about the love that we have, our entire team, for Greg Brooks, a leader beloved by his teammates, and we’ll continue to have that,” Kelly said. “But unfortunately lawsuits come out in our culture and in our society every day, and it is what it is, but it doesn’t change the way we feel about Greg. Our support is going to be there.

“We hope and pray for only the best for him. But when it comes to lawsuits, our kids, players, coaches, we just really focus on Greg and hope and pray that he’s one and the guy that we focus us, and we stay away from anything that has legal ramifications.”

Brooks was sidelined for a week of preseason practice last August, telling reporters upon his return that he had been diagnosed with vertigo.

He played the first two games of the season against Florida State and Grambling State before undergoing an emergency surgery Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, on the eve of the Tigers’ game at Mississippi State — more than a month after his return to practices.

The 13-page suit was filed this August in East Baton Rouge Parish, according the the report, and names among several individuals Kelly, then-defensive coordinator Matt House, then-safeties coach Kerry Cooks, head athletic trainer Owen Stanley and team doctors Stephen Etheredge and Vincent Shaw.