FanHouse Quincy Carter

Training camp can get old fast. What with the two-a-days (anybody still do that?), the oppressive heat, and all the tackling. It all get to be a bit much, frankly. Luckily, football czar/de facto owner/mentor Bill Parcells has found a way to break up the monotony: bring former Cowboys quarterback (and current Arena League sensation) Quincy Carter in for a workout.

If nothing else, it'll distract the players from their current situation, and more importantly, remind them that there are other, less fortunate souls trying to find our way in this world.

Michael Irvin reported the "news" on his radio show yesterday, so take that for what it's worth. But if Carter is given a try out, what, exactly, does that say about the current state of the Dolphins QB depth chart? Word on the street had Josh McCown as the early leader, what with Chad Henne just signing his contract and John Beck getting off to a "disastrous" start.

But are things so dire that Carter needs to called in? Good Lord, it's worse than I thought.

Of course, maybe Parcells is just reaching out to a former player, something he's fond of doing. Or maybe he thinks Carter still can play -- he did quarterback the Cowboys to their improbable 2003 playoff appearance. Plus, compared to other ganja lovers on the team, Carter's virtually a saint. At least according to Carter.

The Dallas Morning News' Tim MacMahon must've known the poopstorm this would cause, but I give him credit for running with it anyway. He goes about the task of ranking the quarterbacks and has the audacity to put Tony Romo fifth behind Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Drew Brees.

Predictably, some Cowboys fans thought Romo was ranked way too low (oddly, nobody thought he was ranked too high), and proceeded to tell us as much. While I have no problems with MacMahon's list, the most intriguing piece of news comes courtesy of commenter Gigante who points to this link and asks, "And this is supposed to make me feel good?"

"You're Phil Mickelson before he won his first major." - Cowboys coach Wade Wilson to quarterback Tony Romo, who has yet to win a playoff game.

First, when I saw "Wade", I just figured it was Phillips and he had confused "Phil Mickelson" with "Brett Favre when he was in Atlanta." It's definitely plausible.

But Wade Wilson? Was he trying to motivate Romo? I mean, it would've been less insulting to say, "If Dr. Frankenstein found a way to combine the worst qualities of Drew Bledsoe, Vinny Testaverde and Quincy Carter, it would be you."

That Romo even made it into MacMahon's top 5 is a testament to his perseverance. In retrospect, maybe Roger Goodell's suspension wasn't harsh enough.

This morning, FanHouse's Michael David Smith wrote that NFL owners had unanimously agreed to opt out of the current labor deal. This won't mean much over the next few seasons, but come 2011, we could all be pulling for a bunch of scabs (and who knows, maybe that will be the break Quincy Carter needs).

Additionally, the owners also have plans to discuss the possibility of adding an additional regular season game to the schedule, an idea that's been floating around for a few years now. From the Washington Post's Mark Maske:

The preseason probably would be shortened by a game to compensate, Goodell said. Goodell said the idea remains in its formative stages and the league is not yet ready to present a proposal to the union, which would have to ratify such a change to the schedule format.

I could go either way on this; players are forever lamenting the length of the preseason, so swapping a game that means absolutely nothing for one that has postseason implications seems like a swell idea. There are still issues to iron out, though; presumably, players are more likely to get injured as the season progress, probability being what it is. And unlike the preseason, when starters seldom see more than a handful of snaps, there's also a concern that teams will be physically spent by the time the playoffs roll around.

Of course, money has a funny way of altering one's perspective, and I suspect that if the owners want a 17th regular season game, they'll figure out a way for everybody to make a few bucks off it.

Last we heard of Quincy Carter, former Cowboys starting quarterback, he was in the process of officially blowing any remote chance he might have to revive his professional football career. A year ago, he was languishing in the lowest rung of the Arena Football League, af2, and that was before he was arrested for marijuana possession, his second offense in as many years.

In last weekend's Kansas City Star, Terez Paylor writes that the once headstrong Carter finally gets it. Or that's the impression, anyway. Last November, after pleading guilty to the marijuana charger, Carter met with former Cowboys linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson.

Henderson, recovered from his own substance-abuse issues, spent much of his retirement helping other athletes straighten out their lives. Knowing Carter's past, Henderson was skeptical, and for good reason.

If Carter screwed up - if he simply asked for money or showed any resistance to the path of recovery - Henderson would move on. To the golf course. Or to the next vacation.

"He surrendered, man," Henderson said. "He said, 'Tell me what you want me to do.' It choked me up. I knew I had to help this man." With Henderson's help, Carter entered rehab. Six months later, he says he's sober and has found an opportunity to return to football.

When I noted yesterday that an ESPN.com report said former Cowboys and Jets quarterback Quincy Carter could get an NFL tryout, I prefaced it by saying I found it hard to believe.

It's stuff like a game Carter's Shreveport Battlewings played against the Amarillo Dusters that explains why I found it so hard to believe:

On 4th and goal from the 1-yard line, Quincy Carter attempted to dive over the pile of bodies and extend the ball across the plane of the goal-line, but was denied by a swarm of Dusters defenders. Carter spiked the ball in frustration and removed his helmet, which cost his team dearly as the Dusters offense took over at their own 21-yard line, rather than their own 1.

(Note that Arena football has shorter fields, so Carter's two personal foul penalties would have totaled 30 yards in the NFL but were 20 yards in Arena football.) If Carter can't even get his head screwed on right in minor-league Arena football, how is he going to deal with the pressure of the NFL?

Hat tip: Pro Football Talk.

I find this hard to believe, but Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com reports (Insider) that former Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter -- last seen getting suspended from a second-tier Arena League team -- could get an NFL tryout this summer.

To review, Carter was a surprise draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 2001, he became their starter as a rookie and actually played OK, started the whole year in 2003 and even quarterbacked the Cowboys in a playoff game, then got cut in 2004 after testing positive for marijuana. He's had brief stints with the Jets, the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL and Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings of af2.

So why would any team give Carter a tryout? Who knows? It sounds like a long shot, but it might make for an interesting preseason game if he's actually on a roster, and I'll take anything that adds interest to the preseason.

Last weekend, the Dallas Morning New's Jean-Jacques Taylor wrote a column about how former Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter is throwing his career away. What prompted the column was the latest incident in Carter's sad story: he was suspended from the af2's Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings for missing team meetings.

In Wednesday's edition, Taylor writes about a phone conversation he had with Carter following Sunday's story:

Carter had heard about my column ... [and] though he hadn't read it, he was disappointed that I wrote it.... After speaking to him for five minutes, it became clearer than ever that he still doesn't understand that he remains at the root of his problems.

No one caused him to miss practice or meetings last week. No one caused him to smoke marijuana in Dallas, which ultimately led to his release, though the Cowboys deny it. He does these destructive things to himself, which is the sad part.

And that's what makes this so depressing. Carter had people around him that wanted him to succeed, but he couldn't get out of his own way. Hell, even Bill Parcells seemed to take Carter under his wing during that improbable playoff run in 2003.

Carter says he won't return to the Battle Wings, which leaves you wondering we're he'll end up. At 29 years old, he's got plenty of time to straighten out his life, but I think Taylor puts it best: "... it's up to Carter to take charge of his life. He must eliminate the excuses and take full responsibility for the mistakes he's made and stop blaming others for his troubles. Only then, will his life turn around. I wish him luck."

Michael Vick might want to pay attention.

Former Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter is now playing for the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings of af2, the minor league version of Arena Football. And he's playing well. Or at least he was, until the Battle Wings suspended him last week.

The suspension was for missing team meetings, and it's just the latest example of how a guy who is talented enough that he started for the Cowboys as a rookie has proven incapable of conducting himself like a professional. Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News put it right: As usual, he screwed up.

Players in the Arena Football minor leagues make a few hundred bucks a week; they have to have another job to pay the rent. So if Carter can't stick around at that level of football, he just can't make it in football. And that's a shame, not so much because Carter has football talent, but because without football, it's hard to picture Carter's life turning out well.

I can't believe it was only three years ago that Quincy Carter quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys to the playoffs. During the 2003 season, Carter threw for 3,302 yards, 17 TDs, 21 INTs, and completed 58 percent of his throws. After a 10-6 regular season -- Bill Parcells' first in Big D -- the Cowboys lost the wild card game to the Panthers. That might've been some of Parcells' best coaching.

Carter was released that off-season because of off-field issues, landed briefly with the Jets, and after six appearances in 2004, his NFL career was over. Just like that. Carter has battled substance abuse, and it's a story we see too often in professional sports.

He may not be in the NFL, but Carter is still playing football. In fact, the NFL Network will feature Carter -- now with the Bossier-Shreveport Battlewings of the af2 -- during this Monday's "Total Access."

Through four games, Carter has completed 82 of 127 pass attempts for 1063 yards and 24 touchdowns. He has thrown three interceptions. In his first road game, Carter tied a franchise record by throwing seven touchdown passes against the Rio Grande Valley Dorados. That included a victory-clinching touchdown toss with just 2.9 seconds showing on the clock. "Quincy is having a lot of fun playing this game," Norris said. "He's like a kid with a video game. That being said, he's still learning. I only expect him to get better as the season progresses."

A couple of things: First, no matter what happens with his professional football career, I hope Carter really has gotten his life together -- I wish him the best. Second, Carter's eye-popping stats should give Kyle Boller hope. He'll definitely have a job once the Ravens choose not to re-sign him following the 2007 season.

Actually, let me correct that headline ... it's not even Arena Football, it's Arena Football 2. But I didn't put the "2" in the headline, because really, hasn't Quincy Carter suffered enough?

Quincy, who's still only 29 years old, signed a contract with the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings, There used to be another franchise called the "Shreveport Battle Wings," but this team moved to town, and they seemed to more likely to tell people what to do, so they called them the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings, and now everyone in the greater Shreveport area fears them.

I made all of that up.

But yes, the Battle Wings are the new home to former Cowboy Quincy Carter. Most recently, Carter was with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian League, but couldn't cut it in the Canadian League. He was released. Then, of course, he was arrested on charges of marijuana possession. And now, he's just trying to get his life back in order ... and church is going to play a part in it.

"That's an everyday process for me," Carter said. "I dread that I even put myself in the position I have the past couple years. I wake up trying to get every day back, but I can't.

"There is going to be a lot of involvement in church," Carter said. "There's also going to be a discipleship in the church for counseling when I need someone to talk to and someone to understand me. That's all in place.

"I wouldn't have come to play football here if that was not in place because I know how much I need that first, even before football."

Good luck with that ... and you know, once upon a time, all Kurt Warner had was God and a job in the Arena Football league. Worked out for him.