Is it normal to say that to your best friend?

There are different kinds of love, I love my best friend of 8 years and in those 8 years of friendship we've told each other than we love one another twice,

He was going through a rough time recently after coming out to his family so I went round his flat for a few days of drinking, talking about his sorrows, watching films and laughing and at the end of it we hugged and said I love you man, it doesn't mean we love each other in the traditional sense, we feel like family members, like brothers

So before you freak out that it's a romantic love you should really consider how deep your friendship is because it could well be something like that, I've heard quite a few friends say I love you in that way