“Cris Carter was as productive as any receiver in the mid-90s and his numbers prove that. He played the slot position as well as anyone. In terms of purely catching the football, I haven’t seen anybody in my time better than Cris Carter.” Former NFL Coach Tony Dungy
Cris Carter enters the 2013 NFL Hall of Fame after being a finalist for the past five years. Known for his diligent work ethic and incredible receptions Carter displayed a model of mental toughness over a career of sixteen seasons, and his football mind played a formidable foe for all opponents who faced him. Carter’s 130 career touchdowns still ranks 4th in the NFL, and his 8 time Pro Bowl selection is 2nd most in all time.
Carter survived some tremendous personal and professional setbacks along the journey to his brilliant NFL career. He initially played for the Philadelphia Eagles, but was let go after four seasons with Coach Buddy Ryan famously quoted as saying “All he does is catch touchdowns!”
While not meant as a compliment, this later became the mantra behind the man whose football mental game surpassed even his physical exploits. Minnesota picked up Carter from the Eagles for a $100 waiver and Coach Jerry Burns later recalled, “I think that 100 bucks has to rank right at the top as the best [bargain] in NFL history”.
When Carter joined the Vikings organization he suffered from severe drug and alcohol addiction, the biggest reason for his dismissal from Philadelphia. The Vikings provided sports psychologists and emotional support to help him restore his personal life, and his growing football confidence resulted in phenomenal athletic performances on the football field. There was no looking back.
Carter’s mental preparation for football and practice sessions motivated his teammates as well. He consciously worked to strengthen his mental game by installing a rigorous system of mental and physical preparation. At the time, Jerry Rice was known as the best receiver in the NFL, and Carter explains how he used Rice to motivate his practice, “Everyone assumed that Jerry Rice was the best receiver. And Jerry Rice trained at 7:00 a.m. on the West Coast, but with my trainer we came up with a plan. We said that we are going to outwork Jerry Rice before he gets up, when he’s sleeping, true story. We started working out before him. I caught thousands of balls one-handed. By the time Jerry Rice woke up I was done with my work, I was done doing whatever I wanted to do and I knew that if Jerry Rice was ahead of me, that day I had caught up to him a little bit.”
The power of imagery and utilizing visualization to install football mental toughness played a critical role in Cris Carter’s success in the NFL. He stressed, “I believe that as a wide receiver, every ball you catch, your brain takes a picture. So for me, I tried to take millions of pictures in my mind, so once I was on the field, there was no ball that I had never seen in my mind. Every time I would drop a ball, I would close my eyes or I would not remember it. I would forget it because I didn’t want it to creep into my psyche. So I caught thousands of balls; one-handed from the Juggs machine, left hand, right hand … it was part of my routine.
Congratulations to Cris Carter and his culmination of a stellar career with his induction into 2013 NFL’s Hall of Fame.
