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Carter driven to make
final splash
By Jarrett Bell, USA
TODAY
BOCA RATON, Fla. —
Soaked in sweat after a grueling 2-hour
workout on a nearby high-school field, Cris
Carter returns to his immaculate,
Mediterranean-style house and promptly heads
to the pool. He slips into a weighted
flotation device, then slides into the cool
water to unwind with ... more exercise.
This water therapy
represents a new twist to Carter's regimen.
And it's evidence that despite the
Hall-of-Fame credentials the Minnesota Vikings
star receiver has achieved — heading into
his 15th season he's the only player in NFL
history other than Jerry Rice with more than
1,000 catches — he's still open to new
tricks.
"Bye, Crissy,"
Carter's wife, Melanie, shouts from the patio.
"I'm going shopping."
"Don't forget your
resolution," Carter hollers back.
"Which one?"
she asks.
"The new
one," he says. "This is definitely
my last year in the NFL. What do they say when
you leave church? 'Govern yourself
accordingly.' "
She heads for the mall
with a laugh. And Carter spends the next hour
twisting, stretching and jogging in the water
— which helps his muscles recover faster. At
35, anything that will reduce soreness is a
good thing.
"This is the first
time I've tried it," Carter says. "I
do feel a difference."
Carter just hired a new
speed coach, too. And about a month before the
Vikings open training camp, he insists he's in
the best condition ever at this point of the
year, because he started his offseason
training — a boot camp so revered that it
attracts about 30 NFL players to work out with
him — a month earlier than normal.
And this guy is
retiring? Carter has played in eight
consecutive Pro Bowls. He ranked third in the
NFC last season with 96 catches. A crafty,
possession type, he shows no sign of slippage.
He says he can do more now, physically, than
he could at 30.
But rather than
daydream about a farewell tour, Carter has
been proceeding with the zeal of a long-shot
free agent. This approach tells you as much as
anything about how a man who climbed from the
depths of career turmoil — the Vikings got
Carter off waivers in 1990 for $100 after drug
and alcohol addiction got him kicked to the
curb by the Philadelphia Eagles — to status
as one of the league's most respected elders.
Never mind the
attractive post-playing career options that
loom, including the management services
company Carter owns with a brother that
recently signed a lucrative partnership deal
with ADT Security Systems. Carter still is
driven for one last, big splash on the playing
field.
"There's a side of
me that says when I do retire and look back,
there won't be any regrets," he says.
"There won't be anything else I can do
from a physical standpoint to play at a higher
level. So I'm putting myself in position to
play at the level I'm used to."
Working on
weaknesses
He hasn't caught a
football all offseason — not even horsing
around with his kids, 10-year-old son Duron
and 7-year-old daughter Monterae.
"The human being
normally likes to work on things that they do
well," Carter explains. "People
wonder why they don't get different results
from doing the same thing. As far as my
catching is concerned, all I want are the same
results. As far as my running speed, agility
and quickness, I want some different results.
I only work on my weaknesses, not my
strengths."
Carter has become quite
the guru for extracting the most from one's
talent. His Fast program — a patented speed,
strength and conditioning routine that is run
by a full-time staff — has become popular
with athletes from varied sports and levels.
Carter says the program
has had more than 3,000 participants the past
2 years, and for every big name, such as NBA
star Vince Carter, there have been dozens of
college players prepping for the NFL combine
and hundreds of high school soccer players.
When Randy Moss was drafted by the Vikings in
1998, he enrolled in Carter's program, then
later called it a key to his explosive rookie
season.
"There are a lot
of different ways to do it," says Carter,
who credits former teammates Roger Craig and
Herschel Walker for inspiring him to upgrade
his emphasis on conditioning earlier in his
career. "My program is just one of the
ways. It's not the best way or the only way.
But we've had tremendous results."
To Carter, an ordained
minister, it's another way to share his
knowledge and experience with his fellow man.
He laughs when he remembers how former Vikings
receiver Anthony Carter used to tell him he
would wind up losing his job to one of the
many young receivers he has shared tips with.
Carter never did lose
his job to a younger receiver but has
encountered one in Moss who is capable of
someday surpassing Carter's Vikings records.
Says Carter, "Randy's the only guy I've
played with that I couldn't teach everything I
know."
The lessons Carter
shares, though, are on a variety of life
issues, and the message usually hits home
because he took such a hard, comeback path to
greatness. Getting cut by the Eagles jolted
Carter into putting his fast-lane lifestyle in
the rearview mirror.
While running his total
of career receiving touchdowns to 123 (second
only to Rice) and becoming a community pillar
(he was named the NFL's Man of the Year in
1999), Carter has maintained his sobriety for
more than 10 years.
"But I live with
that every day," he says. "People
say, 'Look at the end result. It turned out so
great.' But to me, I live with it every day.
There's no day that I get up that I'm not a
drug addict, an alcoholic. So I would change
that. That's not my desire to wake up every
day with that pressure on me.
"It gives me a
tremendous ability to understand other people.
But for me, personally, no, I wouldn't have
drawn it up that way."
Carter's now more
focused on mapping out his future rather than
dwelling on his past. His agent, Mitch
Frankel, marvels at how meticulous Carter has
been for the last 5 years in preparing for
life after football. Carter announced his
intention to retire in early May during a
banquet in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio.
"There's only one
thing that would make me reconsider,"
Carter says. "Finishing in a way with an
injury or something that I didn't like. Not
based on performance."
Says Frankel: "The
decision to retire was very difficult for Cris.
He's still playing at a level most people
dream of playing at. He's smart enough to walk
into the arena of big business and be as
successful as he is on the field. I can't say
that about most athletes."
Super Bowl run?
But there's also
unfinished business on the field that is
calling Carter back for another run that
includes a regular-season finale
Dec. 30 at a fitting venue: Lambeau Field,
pitted against the NFC Central rival Green Bay
Packers.
Carter has never played
in a Super Bowl. The Vikings were one victory
from the Super Bowl in January but were
blasted away by the Giants in their second NFC
title game loss in 3 years. In obvious disgust
after the game, Moss even suggested that
Carter not return if he wanted to win a Super
Bowl. A shaky defense that wasn't
significantly upgraded this offseason may add
further doubt about the Vikings' ability to
get over the hump.
Yet Carter rolls his
eyes at the thought of making his final run a
Super Bowl-or-bust mission.
"Randy was
accurate," Carter says. "I'm not
coming back just to win a Super Bowl. What he
was saying was, 'Cris, I love you so much, I
don't want you to put all of your hope into
winning and be disappointed.' "
Still, in Carter the
Vikings have at least one man primed to do his
part one last time.
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