Quincy Carter is fully aware of all of it, and he runs from none of it.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s 47, and this is who he is. Good, bad, left, wrong and right.<\/p>\n
He is a former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who is one of the few men on earth to have started an NFL playoff game for that franchise, and he\u2019s one of millions of addicts who live in recovery. Although he has not played an NFL game since 2004, he did just enough in the league to still have recognition from his playing career to be a \u201cname.\u201d<\/p>\n
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On Tuesday afternoon, Carter was the keynote guest of the Recovery Resource Council\u2019s \u201cStars in Recovery Luncheon\u201d at the River Ranch in Fort Worth\u2019s Stockyards. It would be hard to find a better speaker for this event than Quincy Carter, who now lives in his native Georgia where he coaches, mentors and runs his own foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cQ\u201d is no longer worried about what he should have done 20 years ago. For the rest of his life he will be a fascinating sports figure; a two-sport athlete at Georgia who was a second round pick of the Cowboys, pushed into the starting lineup as a rookie who eventually led the team to the playoffs in 2003 under Bill Parcells.<\/p>\n
Addiction got Q, and while he should have been an NFL quarterback for a good eight to 10 years, there is nothing he can do about any of what was. And there is even less he can do about what anyone thinks about him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am where I need to be, and that\u2019s first with God,\u201d Carter told the Star-Telegram on Tuesday before the event. \u201cBefore, I had a good understanding of God, but I didn\u2019t have an understanding of God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n
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\u201cDid I use God\u2019s talents? I did, but I had somewhat half-hearted relationship with God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter said he is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and follows their 12-step recovery process. One of his sponsors is former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Thomas \u201cHollywood\u201d Henderson.<\/p>\n
Carter is a grandfather now, and has seven children who live in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, North Dakota and Mississippi.<\/p>\n
\u201cSix moms,\u201d he said. \u201cIt ain\u2019t personal. I tell it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter returned to Georgia where he now runs his own foundation, and coaches young people and players. His approach with the kids, who range from middle school to college, is to just tell his truth. Unvarnished. No trick photography, or Instagram filters to make it look pretty.<\/p>\n
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He was an NFL player who used drugs, and it derailed his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put a lot of work in and I drove myself to be that guy on the field but when I came off the field I started that weed thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One detail to Carter\u2019s time with the NFL that most people didn\u2019t know, or forgot, was that under Parcells, Carter put in the time. He worked at it; he stayed late, studied film, and in 2003 he was an improving NFL quarterback with a future. Maybe not Tom Brady\u2019s future, but a future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had picked up the weed thing my first couple of years when I played minor league baseball, and it followed me to college and into the NFL,\u201d he said. \u201cI had a secret life going on. I would sit here and say, \u2018Oh, thank you Lord,\u2019 and then going out and doing things I had no business doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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And that went well beyond a marijuana joint.<\/p>\n
His aim now is to deter any kid from trying any of it, even if it is legal. Because even if it\u2019s legal, it can be lethal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe epidemic we are dealing with now is that you can\u2019t get any clean marijuana because it has fentanyl and all of these other substances it,\u201d Carter said. \u201cThat\u2019s the worst part of it. I went from what someone might call \u2018a stoner\u201d to ecstasy to cocaine, and it all led me down that road.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the last decade America, and the NFL\u2019s, position on marijuana has shifted from \u201cJust Say No\u201d to all things weed to widespread legalization. Despite its legal state, Carter does not consider marijuana to be in the same classification as a can of Miller Lite, or a box of thin mints.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s still a drug.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy friends say it all the time, \u2018Marijuana is a mind-altering substance.\u2019 Whatever that feeling is, or the relief it provides, it\u2019s mind altering,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are at some point hallucinating, not at the great end of the spectrum of it but there is that aspect to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now you don\u2019t just have to smoke marijuana. You can drink it, rub it in, whatever. I am so blunt about what got me in trouble and all of this \u2018candy\u2019 is that is being handed out, it\u2019s fentanyl. They smoke these vape pens, they\u2019re getting it in elementary school. It\u2019s so prevalent, so I don\u2019t hold back about any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s hope is to convince a young person to just avoid all of it; he is all too familiar with the potential destinations from these habits.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s why he conducts coaching clinics, and camps. It\u2019s why he will show up at events, such as the one on Tuesday in Fort Worth\u2019s Stockyards.<\/p>\n
His story is his story, and he can\u2019t do anything about the previous pages but maybe in sharing his experiences he can help someone write a better version of their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Quincy Carter is doing fine these days and fills his time working with kids, coaching and mentoring them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":53566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1852,54,9,1851,1853],"class_list":["post-53560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-bill-parcells","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-nfl","tag-quincy-carter","tag-tom-brady"],"yoast_head":"\n