Ex-Dallas Cowboys QB Quincy Carter admits addiction, now hopes to be high school coach
Quincy Carter is a 42-year-old man who sounds like he is finally comfortable owning all of it.
At his age he looks back at his life and now can explain how he wound up here, confronting career shortcomings and battling addiction. He finds one person to blame.
“I had a great upbringing. My mom did a great job,” he said. “I chose certain things. I chose another route. Nobody else had anything to do with it but me.”
Today Carter lives in north Austin with the goals of becoming a high school coach and remaining sober. He forever remains one of the more fascinating figures in the history of the Dallas Cowboys.
“I went to rehab about seven months ago,” he said. “It ain’t an easy task, but the only way to beat it is to wholeheartedly surrender.”
Carter became friends with former Cowboys linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, himself no stranger to addiction.
Henderson has been clean for years, and an advocate/mentor to those who need help. Henderson thought Carter needed help, and directed him to Alcoholics Anonymous.
“He thought, for me, to get out of the valley I should do this. I was receptive to anything,” Carter said. “I’m smashing my old ideas. I’ve had my ups and downs. I’m good.
“It’s sad to say I’m 42 and learning how to live again, but this is where I’m at.”
Getting here
The last time I saw Quincy Carter was April of 2007 as he sat inside the locker room at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, La. He was playing for the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings in the AF2 — as in the Arena Football League’s developmental league — making all of $200 per game.
When the story came out, he was not happy with what I wrote.
“I got pissed at you for telling the truth. I was mad. You were telling what actually happened,” Carter said. “I was not in a place to receive that.”
For a sports journalist to hear this type of admission from a subject is akin to winning three different lotteries in the same hour.
At that point Carter’s reputation was to blame others.
One truth was that Carter was good enough to be an NFL quarterback. Another truth was that Carter could not get out of his own way.
By that point he was three years removed from playing in the NFL. His last NFL season was with the 2004 New York Jets where he played three games.
He had been cut by then head coach Bill Parcells and the Dallas Cowboys before the start of training camp that year, even though Carter won 10 games and led the team to the playoffs the previous season.
Parcells would say cutting Carter was the hardest move he made in his tenure as the team’s head coach.
“I failed my drug test for marijuana and they cut me,” Carter said. “Once they were done with me, they were done with me.”
In December of 2006, Carter was arrested for a small possession of marijuana and “being disruptive” at a woman’s home. His $500 bond was posted famously by former Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports columnist and local sports talk show host, Randy Galloway.
It became a joke, but it was more sad than funny.
“When I went to jail it was 2 or 3 a.m. My friends weren’t even up,” Carter said. “I was still asleep when they came and got me and told me that bail was posted. I never even made a phone call.
“I was thankful that Randy did it and I thanked him for doing it. He’s got a job to do and I am forever grateful.”
Carter tried the CFL, but that didn’t take. He stuck with the Arena minor leagues for a few years.
He was cut by a team in Abilene in 2009 after he called the head coach four hours before the game and said he was not playing.
“I was physically done after 2009 after I fractured my [vertebrae]. I didn’t want to be paralyzed,” he said. “Am I OK with it? It took me a little while. The hardest part is the way it ended. I only stopped myself from having a long career.
“It’s one thing if you are not good enough. It’s another thing if you stop your own progress.”
Carter was the second round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 2001 who became their starting quarterback in Week 1 as a rookie. He should never have been put in that position, but owner Jerry Jones wanted to see his experiment work.
Carter was promoted too soon, and playing on a bad team that was rebuilding under a head coach, Dave Campo, who was simply elated to have the job.
In four NFL seasons, Carter was 18-16 as a starter. At a minimum, he was good enough to be on an NFL roster cashing NFL checks.
But he had a problem.
Dealing with demons
Carter has two sons who play basketball, and he knows all his children have to do is Google his name and the details are there.
The flunked drug tests, and the many arrests that range from DWIs to marijuana possession to simple battery.
“You can make one mistake and it can derail you from all of your dreams. If you don’t believe it, just look at my life,” Carter said. “It’s a benefit for them to see someone, if they make these mistakes, these are the things that can happen.
“On the flip side, it’s almost intimidating to actually have someone make it, and then be intimidated to the point they don’t live their life out of fear of making a mistake.”
Carter wants his children to have fun and to live their live without fearing the consequences of a mistake. He just doesn’t want them to make the mistakes he made.
In the last few years he’s worked as a youth coach in Georgia, done some motivational speaking, and he aspires to coach full time on the high school level. He worked as a baseball coach and offensive coordinator at a private school in Dawsonville, Ga.
He lost that position in 2013 when he was arrested for simple battery after allegedly throwing a car seat at a girlfriend. According to the Dawson County Court, the case was dismissed in November of 2014, after he completed all of requirements of his pre-trial agreement.
Since then he’s coached 7-on-7 football teams, and provided baseball instruction. People often forget he was a second-round pick of the Chicago Cubs in the 1996 MLB draft.
He accepted a volunteer position last year at a private school in Corpus Christi but backed out, mostly because of money and logistics.
During this timeline between the end of his playing career and now, he jumped into the bottom.
“I was abusing alcohol. I had dipped into cocaine. When you’re an addict, you can hide it all you want,” he said. “I was drinking extra to think I don’t have an addiction. You’re drinking even more. These thoughts come up.
“Addiction is all about using a substance to compensate for how you really feel inside. All you are doing is stuffing feelings. So you pick up extra drinking. These days there are other avenues, like picking fights. Pornography. Putting down other people. Social media. I just chose the chemical route.”
Quincy Carter was good enough to be an NFL quarterback until he got in his own way. He blames only himself.
At 42, he’s comfortable owning all of it.
Whatever you think of Quincy Carter, it would be nice to see him win this one.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
