At long last, Derrick Brooks has decided to make it official.

After two years out of football, but indicating he might return, Brooks officially will retire.

Brooks’ personal public relations representative and the team have announced that the former linebacker will be delivering a message on DerrickBrooks.tv. The official news conference will be Thursday afternoon at One Buccaneer Place.

I plan to be out there and I’ll do a much more extensive piece then. But my immediate take on this is I’m glad Brooks finally decided to make this official. As I’ve said numerous times, he’s the best player in the history of the NFC South.

I understand he’s a guy with lots of pride and it’s tough for an athlete to admit his career is over. But it was past that time for Brooks. It’s time for him to move on and time for the Bucs to give him a proper sendoff.