A tenth-round selection (117th overall) in the 1953 NFL draft, Brookshier played defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1953 to 1961, missing both the 1954 and 1955 seasons to serve in the United States Air Force.

At age 29, Brookshier's playing career ended midway through the 1961 season; he sustained a compound fracture of his right leg while making a tackle on Willie Galimore in the 16–14 victory over the Chicago Bears at Franklin Field on November 5.

After CBS dismissed its main pro football voice Ray Scott in 1974,[9] the network went against its standard practice of using a professional announcer for play-by-play by promoting Summerall and partnering him with Brookshier.

"[11] CBS, however, eventually found that their pairing exacerbated each of their respective issues with alcohol (Summerall admitted later that they would do heavy drinking the night before games) and desired more excitement in the booth, as their call of Super Bowl XIV had received mixed reviews.

[13] Besides many regular-season and playoff contests, most of which involved the Dallas Cowboys who were the National Football Conference's most dominant franchise at the time, the duo had called Super Bowls X, XII, and XIV.

In 1976, Brookshier and Summerall called a heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and Jean Pierre Coopman live in prime time from Puerto Rico on Friday, February 20.

A month earlier, CBS assigned Summerall and Brookshier to announce a Ken Norton bout against Pedro Lovell, a mere eight days before they called Super Bowl X.

Retired Oakland Raiders head coach John Madden joined CBS as a color analyst in 1979; when he was paired with Summerall on the primary broadcast team in 1981, Brookshier switched to calling play-by-play.

"[17] This resulted in Neal Pilson, then president of CBS Sports, apologizing to Louisville school officials and later suspending Brookshier for the last weekend of the NFL regular season.