LANHAM, Md. - Antoine Brooks Jr. is widely considered the top prep football player in Prince George's County in Maryland. But the DuVal High School quarterback and defensive back, who his coach refers to as a "warrior," suffered a horrific injury in a makeup game at Wise High School Monday night.
Brooks normally brings the DuVal crowd to its feet. But on Monday night, the All-Met standout silenced the crowd and brought a hush over the stands. He suffered a freak injury that every mother dreads.
"I couldn't keep looking because that's my oldest, so that was hard for me to deal with," said Brooks' mother, Keisha Staples.
Brooks suffered a compound fracture to his leg and a broken wrist. The foot injury was so gruesome that it actually turned his foot the opposite direction.
"It kept me up all night long," said Charles Brooks, Antoine's grandfather. "I didn't get much sleep last night because you just remember looking at his eyes and that's a terrible injury. I'd never seen an injury like that. The closest injury I could even think of like that was Joe Theismann."
"I just held his hand, cried," said Staples. "Even once I saw the injury, I just held his hand and told him you got to thank God for everything."
Brooks is in good spirits after five hours of surgery on both his leg and wrist. But the road of recovery will be a long and difficult one.
Meanwhile over at DuVal, his team is trying to move forward without their best player.
"I talked to Antoine last night and he told me that he believes in you guys and he wants you all to finish strong," DuVal head coach Dameon Powell told his players.
"To me, he was Superman," said teammate Kendall Dew-Gregory. "On the football field, to play multiple sports, he was just that guy."
"The message to them is work hard, give it all you have, let's do this for Antoine, DuVal and the community because everybody is still behind us," said Powell.
Coach Powell thinks it is going to be a three to six month recovery for Brooks.
Brooks is a senior and the big question is what will happen with all of the schools recruiting him. He has over 15 scholarship offers from various colleges.
Powell said he has texted with several coaches and they said they are still committed to Brooks.
DuVal lost the game on Monday night and is 5-1 on the season. The team said they are confident that they will make it to the playoffs and have their homecoming game coming up this Saturday.