 Waters in January 2014 | |||||||||||||
| No. 41 | |||||||||||||
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| Position: | Safety | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born: | (1948-09-10)September 10, 1948 (age 76) Miami, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||||||
| Weight: | 193 lb (88 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||
| High school: | North Augusta(North Augusta, South Carolina) | ||||||||||||
| College: | Clemson | ||||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1970:3rd round, 66th pick | ||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||
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| Coaching profile at Pro Football Reference | |||||||||||||
Charlie Tutan Waters (born September 10, 1948) is an American former professionalfootball player who spent his entire 12-year career as asafety for theDallas Cowboys of theNational Football League (NFL). He playedcollege football for theClemson Tigers.
Born inMiami,Florida, Waters's family moved toSouth Carolina where he attendedNorth Augusta High School, starring as afootball andbaseball athlete.
He was asplit end early in his football career before being converted to aquarterback. He was selected to play in the 1965Shrine Bowl and graduated in 1966.[1]
Waters signed a football scholarship atClemson University. As a junior in 1968, he competed with Billy Ammons for the starting quarterback job, winning it after Ammons hurt his knee in spring practice. After a 0–3–1 start, Ammons was made starting quarterback again and Waters moved to split end for the remaining 15 games of his college career. As a senior, he caught 44 passes for 738 yards, and even though his season was cut short with a shoulder separation,[2] his record stood untilJerry Butler broke it in 1977.[3]
A three-year letterman, Waters was an All-ACC selection in 1969 atwide receiver as a senior.[4] During his Clemson career, he caught 68 passes for 1,196 yards and 17.1 yards per catch, to go along with fourtouchdown receptions. He still ranks eighth all-time for yards per reception and eighteenth all-time in receiving yards.
In 1981, he was inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the North Augusta Sports Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame.[5]
Waters was selected by theDallas Cowboys as adefensive back in thethird round (66th overall) of the1970 NFL draft. Although he was nearly released duringtraining camp, his conversion was successful, and he became the backup toCliff Harris atfree safety as a rookie in1970. He ended up starting 6 games after Harris had to serve military duty. Waters had 5 interceptions that season, as the Cowboys went on to loseSuper Bowl V. His performance was good enough to make the NFL all-rookie team in1970.[6]
The next year, he was moved tocornerback, where he struggled for four years in a backup and starter role.[7] Waters was eventually moved tostrong safety in1975 to replace Cowboys greatCornell Green, responding with 3 interceptions for 55 yards and atouchdown. That season, the Cowboys won the NFC Championship but lostSuper Bowl X to thePittsburgh Steelers.
As a strong safety he became anAll-Pro, and along withCliff Harris, formed one of the bestsafety tandems of that era. He was like a coach on the field, with excellent instincts and the athletic ability to become one of the league's top defensive players of the decade.[8] He was selectedAll-Pro twice (1977 and1978) and to thePro Bowl three consecutive seasons (1976–1978).
In1979, Waters suffered a tornanterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee during a preseason game against theSeattle Seahawks, forcing him to sit out the entire year.[9] He returned in1980 and had 5 interceptions. After getting 3 interceptions in1981, he retired with 41 interceptions, third-most in franchise history. He played in 25 playoff games, which ranks 5th in NFL history.
Waters played 12 seasons in the NFL, never experienced a losing season and only missed the playoffs once (1974) during that span. He played in fiveSuper Bowls:V,VI,X,XII, andXIII, with victories inVI andXII. He holds the NFL record for most playoff interceptions with 9, including 3 in one playoff game, and has the unique achievement of blocking 4 punts in 2 consecutive games. He also was the team's holder for placekicks.
Waters spent the1983 season in the broadcast booth forCBS Sports, withTom Brookshier on play-by-play. It was Waters who first admonished Brookshier after the latter commented during a college basketball promo in December that players for theLouisville Cardinals had "a collective IQ of about forty," resulting in Brookshier being removed from calling NFL games for the remainder of the season.[10]
Waters retired and became an NFL and college footballcoach. He was thedefensive coordinator for theDenver Broncos in1993 and1994, and then for theUniversity of Oregon in1995. Late that season, his oldest son Cody died inEugene in his sleep on December 4, 1995, 12 days before his 18th birthday.[11] He and his wife Rosie Holotik, actress and model, at the time had two more sons, Ben and Cliff (afterCliff Harris).[12]
He was nominated for thePro Football Hall of Fame in 2001, but was not elected.
In 2006, the Dallas Cowboys hired Waters as the newcolor commentator for the Cowboys Radio Network, working alongsideBrad Sham when former color commentator and DallasquarterbackBabe Laufenberg resigned his post to spend time with his family.
Outside of football, he works with longtime teammateCliff Harris at a gas marketing company. In February 2007, Waters announced that he would be leaving the radio booth after only one season, citing a busy work schedule that did not allow him enough time to prepare for the game broadcasts.[13]