Cris Carter's sober recollections
By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 9/24/2003

Conclusion of a two-part column
Fitz: Do you owe anyone that stands out a sense of gratitude for getting you started and leading you in the direction that you pursued?
Carter: There are so many different phases as far as my brothers getting me involved in little league sports and having good coaches. My high school coach Bill Conley, who’s the special team’s coach at Ohio State University now, [was a] phenomenal coach. Playing three years with Buddy Ryan in Philadelphia was a great experience.
Dennis Green, playing under him 12 years, taught me more about sports and life and being a Black man than any other coach I’ve been associated with. So a culmination of all those things — it’s not one person but there were significant roles for a lot of people.
Fitz: The intensity that you brought to the game of football, how were you able to pass that on to your teammates — that you wanted to win the game no matter what, and you were going to go out there even if you had to do it by yourself?
Carter: Well, you try to day in and day out. The ones that know you, they know and the others start to see football — I’ve always said it is the ultimate team sport.
So you try and get a trickle-down effect from the people who are leaders, the veterans the people who are older. That the younger players might be able to see that that’s the type of attitude it takes. And that’s what I tried to bring to the field every Sunday.
Fitz: I’ve been at this now for a few years — 25 in the broadcast media journalism business, and I remember when you came in from Philadelphia. You changed your life, and you made that decision and you’ve stuck to it. Tell me about that decision.
Carter: There were a lot of things I had to change. I’ve always been a goal-setter and tried to do things that would help me trying to learn — not only as an athlete, but socially you have grow up. Stop making the same mistakes, put away childish things, be a man, be responsible, raise a family, be a productive member of society, and also you’ve got young people looking at you.
That they might try to grow up and be like you, everything that you do weighs heavily not only on yourself but on other people, and I started realizing the repercussions of making bad decisions. And I just made up my mind that I wanted something different and wanted to exhaust all of my athletic ability and see how good I could be.
Fitz: Is there one single achievement that stands out for you? NFL Man of the Year Award, the Walter Payton Award, back-to-back seasons of 122 receptions, all the Viking records and wins playoffs Pro Bowl trips?
Carter: Probably my greatest accomplishment is my sobriety. To be sober for 13 years after everything I went through, through drug addiction and alcoholism to say that today I’m still a sober man is the thing that I’m more proud of than anything else.
Because even though you do get help consciously every day, I had to make a decision this is what I’m going to do. It does not go away. It’s not like there are 60,000 people cheering for you — mostly it’s myself every day realizing this is who I am. This is who I’ll be until the day I die, and this is the walk that I choose.
Fitz: How do you allow your personality to come across on television in contrast to your personality that came across on the football field?
Carter: For me, it’s about information. I try to be the same person; I try to act as if there are four guys, four of my buddies, sitting talking about football. And, I try and get enough information that I can utilize my personality. So, it’s nice with HBO, because they don’t try to make me into being somebody that I’m not.
Fitz: Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss, you have shared your experience. You’ve gone to battle with them; they’ve learned from you. Talk about that in view of where they are today, and what they are trying to achieve.
Carter: The sky’s the limit for them collectively — especially for them staying together. The chemistry they have, the rapport they have, the type of personality and hunger and desire to be the best and with the ability to match it.
A lot of people wake up every day and say, “I want to be the best,” but they don’t have the ability that would match that vision or that goal. So with them, the sky is the limit. Potentially, they could be the greatest or among the greatest that ever played their position, and I don’t say that lightly.
But that’s the type of ability that they have by being surrounded by a supporting cast that would help them out where they would not have to do everything. It’s a great situation for them here in Minnesota. The organization has taken care of both of them, so they don’t have that burden.
Fitz: Charles Barkley said athletes are not role models — do you agree with that?
Carter: I believe that an athlete should try and be a role model, but there is a difference between a role model and hero.
All athletes are heroes. Only a few are role models to me. I would hope that athletes would take upon the responsibility given the popularity — especially as far as football is concerned — that they would say, “Wow, I do have a responsibility to young people.”
It’s young people every day growing up, trying to be just like us. It’s just impossible for me to say that you’re not a role model, because people are trying to be like me. The thing is, you are role models. Now are you going to choose to be a good role model or bad one?