Carter cornerback
Q: We're doing a retrospective on the 1988 Carter team. Can I get your insight from that time?
A: The real story never comes out. I don't think I could actually tell my story and be able to get it into the paper. It's hard to tell that. The real story.
Q: Such as?
A: We targeted players. Opponents' best players rarely finished the game.
There's a reason for that (expletive). There's a reason our coaches would say, 'Look, this is what we've got to do. We've got to knock this guy out of the game. So we're going to take shots at him until we get him.' That was just the bottom line.
You only had two players who were really taking shots. That was me and Jessie.
Friday Night Lights, that scene about high school hit man? That was (expletive) real. That was just the bottom line.
If we were practicing most of the time against our first-team offense, Coach James would take me and Jessie out. We watched from the sideline.
There was one incident, and you can probably verify this through Robert Hall, in practice we ran a blitz. I was blitzing, and I was coming through. And at the last second, Coach Chambers actually jumped in front of me. I was going full speed ahead.
Coach Chambers jumped out and grabbed me, took the brunt of the hit. If he wouldn't have, he could see it in my eyes that Robert Hall probably would have been done for the year. I had a clear shot and I was going for the head.
Q: What would go through your head in situations like that?
A: Nothing. I only knew how to play one way. I played 100 miles an hour, whether it was practice or a game. It wasn't that I wanted to hurt none of my teammates. That was the only way I knew how to play the game. I couldn't let up. I didn't know how to let up.
Q: Like I've told some of your teammates, I think readers are less interested in the game-by-game details because they remember a lot of that. I would imagine they are more interested in behind the scenes memories.
A: You can't get to the behind the scenes stuff in the newspaper. That's why I'm just like to hell with it. It's a waste of time. There's no way you can get into the newspaper the behind the scenes stuff of when we went to play Odessa.
You can't get behind the scenes. You can't print none of that (expletive) in the paper. Leading up to that week, to be honest it had turned into a black and white issue. Between the school administration, where the game was going to be played. Their fans said they would never come to South Dallas to play a game. We could never come to Odessa to play. Our fans couldn't sit next to their fans.
Like I said, the story is so much that you can't print. The real story never comes out. You've got to sugar-coat it to get it in the paper. I don't want to tell my story that way. My story is unedited.
That's why if you've ever noticed, all these stories that have been done over the years, I've never done one of them. I did that one with Bissinger when I was locked up. I haven't done a story since.
Q: You haven't said anything yet that is unprintable. And because so many people are being interviewed, we plan to run the transcripts. So it's up to you.
A: Some of the things that happened never got out. I'm not going to lie to you. There was some big-time friction on the team about who was the best damn player on the team, whether it was me or Jessie. If you asked 10 different people, you're probably going to get eight different answers.
That caused a problem at time.
Q: What kind of problems?
A: It just caused problems. That caused a problem between coaches. If you're a college scout and you come into the organization and you've got two All-Americans on the team, and you talk to the head coach, and the head coach says Jessie's the best player on the team, and you talk to the defensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator says Derric Evans is the best player on the team, it was a situation that existed. You never heard any of that (expletive) getting printed.
Me and Jessie damn-near got in a fight down there on the sideline during the Odessa game. Nobody ever talked about that (expletive).
Q: How are you and Jessie today?
A: We talk every now and then. We don't have no animosity toward one another. When he was playing with the Giants, I let him know that he was doing a good job. We're fine. But that was a real story that's never been told.
That was fun that year because we didn't feel like we could lose. We didn't feel like anybody could play with us.
We went to Hulsey. We didn't think any of the guys who went to the other school (Atwell) could play on the same team with us. We'd never lost a football game, our class. When we were at Hulcy our seventh and eighth grade year, we never lost a football game. Our freshman year, our senior year. We never tasted defeat as a group; the seniors, I'm talking about.
I know me and Jessie just felt like we were better than anybody else. We went out to try to prove it every week. That caused problems between us sometimes.
Q: So what are you doing now?
A: Working. (laughs) Don't have a choice.
Q: Who do you work for?
A: See, I don't want to even get into that. I'd tell you, but the stories are always so negative. Somebody sees the story and you don't know how your employer will take it. You've got to worry about that (expletive) nowadays. You don't play football no more and you've got a job. You've got to kind of watch what you say.
Q: I would imagine a lot of readers will wonder whether the prison sentence held you back in ways besides losing your scholarship and maybe costing you a shot at the NFL.
A: That's basically all it did.
Q: It didn't hold you back from getting good jobs?
A: That, too. That has happened on a number of occasions.
Q: Some of the other Carter guys mentioned it created hurdles, along with things like not getting to vote.
A: That's why I don't ever like to do stories because when they get published they'll read it ... Some people may not even know, may not even be able to remember that far back and what happened. Bringing that up again is like a refresher of what happened. Some people don't take that too well, man.
Q: So your employer doesn't know you played for Carter and what happened?
A: They don't know that. They talk about football, but they don't know who I am. They talk about that high school team that kicked everybody's ass. They remember that team, but they don't even know I was part of it.
I've got to worry about that now because I work.
Somebody like Jessie, he doesn't worry because he's probably got enough money. I work now and I don't know how that might affect me.
I'll tell you how I feel about the team. I feel like we were the best high school team there ever was. I don't think anybody could have beaten us, honestly. No high school team that has been assembled – we don't think any of them could have beaten us.
Q: Not even the '85 Houston Yates team?
A: Nah. They wouldn't have had a chance. Not a chance. I mean, when you look at our offense, our offense really wasn't that good. The defense always put them into position with a short field, an interception or fumble or something like that. They scored a lot of points like that; even the defense scored a lot of points.
We'd tell them sometimes, 'Offense go kick a field goal. If you kick a field goal in a tight game, that'll be enough. We're not going to let the other side score.
That damn Marshall game we played, when they caught that touchdown. That was a big deal because we knew they were going to throw the ball. I was standing on the sideline between Coach James and Coach Vonner. They were saying, 'The only way we were going to get pressure on the quarterback is if Evans' blitzes. But if he doesn't get there, then we're vulnerable to the pass.'
I told them I'd rather be in Cover 2 if I knew they were going to throw the ball. But we decided to blitz. I said if I blitz, you know they've got a tight end who's playing like a little halfback. He lines up in front of me every play, so two guys are going to be there. I said, 'Yeah, I can beat these two guys and get to the quarterback, but that doesn't mean he's not going to get the ball off.'
So, they blitzed. Two guys blocked me. (expletive) touchdown. I feel like if I was back there, it wouldn't have happened. I mean, it's a lot of (expletive).
Q: I'm sure a lot of readers also remember you signing your letter of intent in a hot tub.
A: Yeah. I mean, that was another thing. That (expletive), man, that signing date between me and Jessie ... (laughing). I'm not even going to tell you that damn story.
It was an ongoing thing on the team about who was the best player, me or Jessie. I would tell anybody that I was. I'll tell anybody that I thought he was the best linebacker in the country. But I thought I was the best player in the country, period.
Q: Coach James said he is sure you would have made a lot of money in the NFL.
A: Yeah. I screwed that up.
