Team healthy; Brooks' family safe after hurricane

By Mark Curnutte
Enquirer staff writer

The Bengals are a healthy team heading into their opener Sunday at Cleveland.

The first official injury report lists only wide receiver Kelley Washington (hamstring) as questionable and cornerback Tory James (foot) as probable.

Cornerback Greg Brooks also was back at work, having gone to his hometown of New Orleans and finding all seven of his immediate family members alive and well.

Though his property was destroyed by floods wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Brooks found his mother, young son and grandparents. They had evacuated to Baton Rouge, La., in the middle of last week.

Brooks flew into Jackson, Miss., on Monday – when he still did not know if his relatives had survived – rented a car and drove to New Orleans, he said. He was stopped at a police roadblock on the interstate but allowed in because his grandfather was at a New Orleans hospital.

“It’s 10 times worse than it looks on TV,” Brooks said this afternoon at Paul Brown Stadium.
“I could see my grandfather’s house from the hospital. The roof is gone.”

The seven family members are driving to Greater Cincinnati, where they will stay indefinitely with Brooks.

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com