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Ex-Cowboy Quincy Carter goes from rehab to a shot at the Brigade

By TEREZ A. PAYLOR

The Kansas City Star






Quincy Carter rode shotgun in his pastor’s Lexus as it headed toward Dallas on a November afternoon last year.

There was silence. Carter had been forced to revive his football career in the lowest of ranks, but now even that comeback was in jeopardy. Earlier that day, Carter sat in a courtroom in Shreveport, La. — where he played the previous season for a minor-league arena football team — and pleaded guilty to marijuana possession, his second arrest in two years.


His only hope now waited in the city where Carter had once enjoyed his greatest success. The pastor pulled into Dallas, where four years ago Carter was the face of the Cowboys, his image appearing on billboards and in commercials.


Carter knocked on a hotel door. He walked in and sat on a couch. Across from him sat Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson. The former Cowboys linebacker, after recovering from his own drug problem, hit the lottery for $28 million and gained notoriety for helping other athletes and stars turn their lives around.


The problem was, Henderson considered himself retired. 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.


But Carter knew what he had to do.


“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.


He signed with the Brigade earlier this month, still harboring dreams of returning to the NFL. But he hasn’t even suited up for a game in Kansas City. Instead, he works out with the Arena Football League team’s practice squad, hoping to get a shot.


“This is his last chance,” Henderson said. “To be a man. A father. A friend. An employee.”
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They prayed for him.
Right there in his hometown church, New Birth Missionary Baptist in Lithonia, Ga., they sent Carter off with great hope to his first NFL minicamp with the Cowboys in 2001. Carter kneeled at the altar as the preacher and other clergymen touched his head and led the congregation in worship.
Carter has always believed God had something special in store for him. His mother always told him that growing up. Other people felt the same way.


“I had coaches tell me about my presence and leadership ability,” Carter said, “not only from a physical standpoint, but from a mental one, too.”
In 2004, Carter had every reason to believe his fourth pro season would be his best. He was coming off a 2003 season in which he started 16 games and threw 17 touchdowns while leading the Cowboys to a 10-6 record and a playoff berth.


Aveion Cason, who became friends with Carter while playing with the Cowboys that season, remembered the way fans used to swarm the quarterback whenever they went out.

“Going out with him was crazy,” Cason said. “There were some times we’d have to go in the back just to go eat (in a restaurant). He’d wear shades, with his hat real low — that never worked.”


So imagine Cason’s surprise on Aug. 4, 2004, just a few days into training camp, when Carter walked in his room and told him he’d been released.
“I thought he was joking,” Cason said.
But he wasn’t. Carter had just tested positive for marijuana for the second time in his

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