 Carter in 2015 | |||||||||||
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| Positions | Defensive end Defensive tackle | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Born | (1973-09-21)September 21, 1973 (age 52) Miami, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | ||||||||||
| Listed weight | 305 lb (138 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| High school | Lincoln (Tallahassee, Florida) | ||||||||||
| College | Florida | ||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1995: 1st round, 6th overall pick | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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Kevin Louis Carter (born September 21, 1973) is an American former professionalfootball player who was adefensive end in theNational Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons in the 1990s and 2000s. Carter playedcollege football for theFlorida Gators, earningAll-American honors. A first-round pick in the1995 NFL draft, he played in the NFL for theSt. Louis Rams,Tennessee Titans,Miami Dolphins, andTampa Bay Buccaneers.
Carter was born inMiami, Florida.[1] He attendedLincoln High School inTallahassee, Florida,[2] and was aletterman for the Lincoln Trojanshigh school football andbasketball teams. In football, he was aParade magazine high school All-American. Carter was asaxophone player in themarching band until he started his first season of football as a junior. He was a member of the school's Crime and Drug Prevention Task Force and was named Student-Athlete of the Year as a senior.
Carter accepted an athletic scholarship to attend theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a four-yearletterman for coachSteve Spurrier'sFlorida Gators football team from1991 to1994.[3] During his four seasons as a Gator, the team won threeSoutheastern Conference (SEC) championships (1991,1993,1994).
In his freshman season, Carter played in eleven games and started two, and tallied fourteen tackles. Following his sophomore season in1992, he was a second-team All-SEC selection and aFootball News honorable mention All-American after compiling sixty-four tackles (thirty-eight solo), twelve forced quarterback hurries, 3.5 sacks, and six tackles for a loss.[3] As a junior in1993, he made fifty-nine tackles (11.5 for losses), 6.5 sacks, twelve pressures and blocked a field goal, and was recognized as a first-team All-SEC Selection.[3]
As a senior in 1994, Carter was a first-team All-SEC selection and a consensus first-team All-American.[3][4]Football News named him one of five finalists for its 1994 Defensive Player of the Year Award, and he was a semifinalist for the 1994Lombardi Award, presented to the nation's top lineman.[3] His 42.5 career tackles for a loss and 21.5 quarterback sacks ranked seventh and fifth, respectively, in Gators history.[3] Carter's 11.5 sacks in 1994 were then the third-best seasonal total in school history.[3] Hestarted thirty-eight of his last thirty-nine games at defensive end.[3]
Carter served as president of the University of Florida chapter of theFellowship of Christian Athletes. In 2000, Carter was voted to theFlorida Gator All-Century Team and in 2006 he was voted to theUniversity of Florida Gator 100th Anniversary Team. Carter was inducted into theUniversity of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2004.[5][6]
| Height | Weight | Arm length | Hand span | 40-yard dash | Vertical jump | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 ft5+5⁄8 in (1.97 m) | 274 lb (124 kg) | 33+1⁄4 in (0.84 m) | 10+5⁄8 in (0.27 m) | 4.66 s | 36.5 in (0.93 m) | |||||||
| All values fromNFL Combine/Pro Day[7] | ||||||||||||
At the University of Florida Pro Day, Carter ran a 4.6640-yard dash at 274 pounds while recording avertical jump of 36½ inches.[citation needed]
The St. Louis Rams selected Carter in the first round (sixth pick overall) of the 1995 NFL draft.[8] He signed a contract with the Rams for a reported $10 million over six years.
During his rookie year with the Rams, Carter ranked second on the team and second among rookies with six sacks, while posting 50 tackles, two forced fumbles, onesafety and one fumble recovery. He was named the Rams' Rookie of the Year. He recorded his first career sack when he droppedBrett Favre for a 10-yard loss in Green Bay (9/3/1995). He tallied first career safety when he sackedNew York Jets quarterbackBoomer Esiason inend zone (12/3/1995).
In 1998, Carter led the team in sacks with twelve and tied for sixth in the NFC, earning him the Daniel F. Reeves Memorial Award as the Rams' Most Valuable Player. He was also a Pro Bowl alternate.
His best season as a pro came in1999 with the Rams when he tallied a career high 17quarterback sacks which led the NFL and was the highest sack total by a Ram sinceJack Youngblood collected 18 sacks in 1979. These efforts earned him a spot on the1999 Pro Bowl team.[1] He also became the first defensive end to represent the Rams at Pro Bowl since Youngblood in 1979. Carter was a consensusAll-Pro selection in 1999, in addition to being named to theAll-Madden andPhil Simms' All-Iron Teams. The 1999 Rams defense, anchored by Carter at left defensive end, had the No. 1-ranked rushing defense in the NFL (74.3 ypg) and led the NFL in quarterback sacks with fifty-seven (tied with theJacksonville Jaguars).
Carter (7.5 sacks in the month of November) was recognized as the NFC Defensive Player of the Month and earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors in Week Eight versus the Carolina Panthers. He and his teammates ended the 1999 regular season with a 13–3 record and wereSuper Bowl XXXIV champions. Carter made one of the Rams' sacks in the Super Bowl XXXIV win over the Tennessee Titans.
In 2000, Carter totaled 10.5 sacks and started thirteen of the sixteen games he played for the Rams. In 2000, for the first time in his career, Carter moved to defensive tackle in the Rams'nickel defense, withLeonard Little playing the left defensive end position. After the 2000 season he was traded to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a 2001 first-round draft choice on April 4, 2001, later used onRyan Pickett.
Carter was traded to the Titans in 2001 and continued the same stellar performances he had with the Rams. During his first season, he recorded 61 tackles and two sacks and led the team with 34 quarterback pressures. Carter had 10 sacks and was voted to his second Pro Bowl in 2002 and named second-team All-Pro byFootball Digest.
In 2003, he started all 16 games, and led the Titans linemen with 79 tackles. He added 5.5 sacks, one forced fumble and a pass defensed. Played both end and tackle and was instrumental in helping Tennessee to the No. 1-ranked rushing defense in the NFL (80.9 yards per game), marking the second time in his career that Carter played on the NFL's top-ranked rushing defense. Although Carter did not gain any individual honors, his play was noticed by opposing NFL coaches. In December 2003,Pro Football Weekly reported, "Patriots head coachBill Belichick argued that DL Kevin Carter—who starts at the DLE spot and plays inside on passing downs—could be considered for league MVP."[9]
In 2004, Carter started all 16 games for the Titans, however, seven were at his usual left defensive end position and nine were at left defensive tackle. Posted a career-high and team-leading 82 tackles while sacking the quarterback 6 times while recovering one fumble and forcing one fumble and batting away two passes. His contract was terminated by Tennessee on February 22, 2005, after earning $20.5 million in his four seasons with the Titans.
Carter was signed by Miami on March 7, 2005. In 2005, Carter started all 16 games at left defensive end for the Dolphins and totaled 54 tackles, six sacks, four passes defensed, one fumble recovery, and one forced fumble. His sack total tied withDavid Bowens for second on the team. He notched the secondsafety of his career in win atNew Orleans (October 30, 2005) when he sacked Saints quarterbackAaron Brooks in the end zone.
The following season (2006) Carter again started all 16 games for the Dolphins, marking the sixth consecutive season that he started all 16 contests. Carter had 45 tackles, 5.5 sacks and two fumble recoveries. New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said this about Carter and the Dolphins' front four, "When they get to third down, they putVonnie Holliday inside with Kevin Carter, and [David] Bowens andJason Taylor on the edge, it's the best pass rushing group I think we've seen all year across the board. Every one of those guys can definitely rush."
Carter's contract was terminated by Miami on March 2, 2007. Carter's release came after he was unable to reach an agreement on a restructured contract with Miami. Carter earned $10 million in his two seasons with Miami.
Three days after his release by the Dolphins, on March 5, 2007, Carter signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Carter played sixteen games while starting fourteen for the Bucs in 2007, compiling forty-three tackles, three sacks and one forced fumble. Carter was released on February 27, 2008, in what was described as a "cost-cutting" move.[10] However, on March 25, 2008, Carter re-signed with the Bucs. He reportedly turned down a two-year deal with theOakland Raiders to sign a one-year $3.5 million deal with Tampa Bay.[11] Carter had earned $5.2 million in 2007 with the Buccaneers and would have earned $5.8 million in 2008 ($3.8 million plus a $2 million roster bonus).[12] Carter's agent stated, "It was big money he turned down (from Oakland), but he went with heart rather than the pocket".[11] Carter has a chance to be the Bucs' starting left end in 2008, but he'll likely come off the field on passing downs.[13] He registered forty-nine tackles and four sacks while starting every game for the Buccaneers in 2008. Carter earned $8.7 million in his two seasons with the Bucs.[12] After the 2008 season, the Buccaneers chose not to resign Carter, who was a free agent, and on April 28, 2009, Carter visited theDetroit Lions seeking a contract.[14] After passing on the Lions offer, Carter remained an unsigned free agent and subsequently retired from football.
In his fourteen-season NFL career, Carter, never missing a game, played in 224 regular season games, starting in 219 of them.[1] He totaled 104.5 career sacks, reaching double digits four times (1998–2000, 2002) and leading his team five times (1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004).[15] He earned just over $49 million during his career.[12]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Won theSuper Bowl | |
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career best |
| Year | Team | GP | Tackles | Fumbles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cmb | Solo | Ast | Sck | FF | FR | |||
| 1995 | STL | 16 | 37 | 33 | 4 | 6.0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1996 | STL | 16 | 53 | 37 | 16 | 9.5 | 6 | 1 |
| 1997 | STL | 16 | 42 | 30 | 12 | 7.5 | 3 | 2 |
| 1998 | STL | 16 | 60 | 49 | 11 | 12.0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1999 | STL | 16 | 34 | 30 | 4 | 17.0 | 4 | 2 |
| 2000 | STL | 16 | 35 | 31 | 4 | 10.5 | 1 | 1 |
| 2001 | TEN | 16 | 36 | 28 | 8 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2002 | TEN | 16 | 42 | 27 | 15 | 10.0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2003 | TEN | 16 | 48 | 29 | 19 | 5.5 | 1 | 0 |
| 2004 | TEN | 16 | 49 | 26 | 23 | 6.0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2005 | MIA | 16 | 52 | 34 | 18 | 6.0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2006 | MIA | 16 | 45 | 28 | 17 | 5.5 | 0 | 2 |
| 2007 | TB | 16 | 43 | 32 | 11 | 3.0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2008 | TB | 16 | 49 | 28 | 21 | 4.0 | 1 | 0 |
| Career[16] | 224 | 625 | 442 | 183 | 104.5 | 20 | 13 | |
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Carter is active in community endeavors. He and his wife, Shima, established the Kevin Carter Foundation in 2002, which is an organization created to enrich the lives of children, focusing on youth and character development. One of Carter's favorite quotes from his father is: "To whom much is given, much is expected" and he founded his organization on that principle.[17]
For the past eleven years,[when?] Carter has hosted the "Waiting for Wishes" celebrity dinner and reception, where he and his teammates, along withHollywood stars and musicians have come together to be the waiters and waitresses for dinner attendees. The annual dinner has generated thousands of dollars for theMake-A-Wish Foundation and the Kevin Carter Foundation. Carter was named the Community Man of the Year Award for three straight years by his Titans' teammates, and while he was with the Rams, he was named aUnited WayAfrican American Leadership Giver.
In 1998, Carter founded the Kevin Carter Football Endowment at the University of Florida, which providesscholarships to deserving college athletes. He also serves on theNFL Players Association Executive Committee.
