As loyal readers here know, Joe Twitters. Joe also follows some 179 different Twitterers and organizations. It can be a gold mine of information.

(Joe even participates in weekly “24” live chats via Twitter with some local football celebrities.)

One of the people Joe follows is Greg Aiello, who is the chief spokesman/flack for the NFL. Yesterday, he Twittered some of the top candidates to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame during their first year of eligibility. Here are some of his Twitterings about the subject (Joe hates the verb “Tweet.”)

For you Hall of Fame nuts, here are notables eligible for 1st time in coming years: 2011 (The Bus, Deion, Marshall, Curtis Martin)… 2012 (Tiki), 2013 (Strahan, Morten Anderson), 2014 (Derrick Brooks, Rodney Harrison), 2015 (Junior Seau, Kurt Warner).

Derrick Brooks? Joe wasn’t aware he retired?

What does Aiello — and the NFL — know that Bucs fans don’t know? Has Brooks already turned in his retirement papers, or has Aiello simply assumed Brooks is retiring?

Brooks sort of priced himself out of the market this past season after the Bucs turned him loose. Brooks all but admits it.

It’s not like Brooks is hurting for cash. He has a lot of oars in the water. There’s his school, his charity work, his gig on the board of regents at Florida State, his many business interests and his two jobs in the Fourth Estate, working for BSPN as a talking head and his radio show on Sirius NFL Radio.

Oh, yeah, and maybe his stab at politics.

Joe is just curious if Aiello knows that Brooks filed his retirement papers and accidently let this slip?