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In his weekly Monday Morning QB column, SI's Peter King writes that he's "stunned by" the 17 weeks Derrick Brooks has spent unemployed.

The NFL's Defensive Player of the Year in 2002 and 11-time Pro Bowler was cut by Tampa in February.

Despite his age and "not being the same player" he's been, wouldn't a team, especially a younger, "rebuilding" team, want a leader like Derrick Brooks to groom their younger linebackers as a mentor?

Brooks, who played hurt for the first time in 14 years, said that, "...the day after we lost to Oakland in the last game, at 1 or 2 in the afternoon, I was in the trainers' room doing my rehab work on my hamstring. I didn't want to have any setbacks by playing in the Pro Bowl.''

Per King, Warren Sapp offers a different reason why Brooks isn't playing.

"I'll tell you the real reason,'' his friend Warren Sapp said over the weekend. "Because it's not the same for the veterans anymore. The NFL doesn't need us. In this NFL, the old vets don't factor in. The kids don't listen to nobody. Nobody! My last year in Oakland, I'd try to talk to some of the kids. Tommy Kelly, Terdell Sands. But they had no interest. I thought the ghosts in that building were so valuable, but none of the young guys cared. Once in a while, one of the old legends would come in the building, or make a trip. Jack Tatum would be around, and I'd say, 'You know who that dude is? You know how he played?' And the kids would be like, 'Nah, I don't care.'"

Young folks not listening to, respecting or caring about their wiser elders? It sounds like the NFL is turning into, um, real life.