Carter praised for perseverance Tuesday, August 11, 1998
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- A certain sequence of events is sure to unfold Monday when the Bengals face the Indianapolis Colts at Cinergy Field: The National Anthem will be played. The opening kickoff will follow. Then a substantial number of fans will boo Ki-Jana Carter.
Except for the outrageous socks he wore on the first day of training camp. Ki-Jana Carter has been all business.
(Michael Snyder photo)
| ZOOM |Never mind that it's only a preseason game. It won't matter that Carter plays for the home team. The four years the running back has spent working diligently on the field and behaving politely away from it aren't enough for many fans, who apparently haven't forgiven him for not becoming a superstar after the Bengals drafted him No. 1 overall out of Penn State in 1995.
Much has happened since then. He signed a seven-year, $19.2 million contract that included a $7.125 million signing bonus, which remained the highest for a draft pick until quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf broke the bank last month.
He seriously injured his left knee and missed his rookie season, lost his starting job in each of the next two years and weathered a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder. Last year, Carter reported overweight to an offensive mini-camp, but coach Bruce Coslet said he looked "sleek and racy" when training camp started.
Carter also never got arrested, never declared "I hate Cincinnati" a la Dan Wilkinson and never complained.
"He has grown as a man," running back Eric Bieniemy said. "He had some tough times when he first came in the league. He showed the type of character that a professional has. You have to persevere through adversity."
In that vein, Carter insisted he doesn't let the booing bother him. The abuse wasn't particularly noticeable until after Corey Dillon replaced him as a starter last year. When Dillon rushed for a rookie-record 246 yards last Dec. 4, fans booed Carter almost every time he touched the ball.
"You can't let it get to you," Carter said. "When things aren't going your way, or how they want it to be, people are going to talk (negatively) about you."
He absorbed this lesson years ago, even when he was a high school All-American at Westerville South in Columbus.
"Granted, I've been successful at each level I've played in, but I've always started from the bottom and worked my way up," he said. "I know how it feels to be on the bottom. The last couple of years, things haven't been going well. But sooner or later it'll all turn around."
Carter's maturity helps him comprehend experiences such as the one he had at a Cincinnati establishment while out with friends. Those friends visited the rest room, where they heard patrons discuss Carter being in the building and make derisive comments about him. The critics were unaware that they were in the company of Carter's confidants.
"Then I went in the rest room, and as soon as I was in there, they said hi and patted me on the back," Carter said.
Thus, though Carter appreciates the positive comments he receives from people he meets, "I always wonder if those are some of the people booing me," he said.
Maturity, said Bieniemy, has enabled Carter to cope with a backup role. As a Heisman Trophy finalist at Colorado who has never rushed for more than 381 yards in any of seven NFL seasons, Bieniemy knows what it means to leave glory days behind.
"You come into the league with an attitude of, "I was the best at one level,' and then you find out that everybody on the next level is just as good as you, if not better," Bieniemy said. "You have to learn to accept that and work on the things you may not have thought to work on. It's all about becoming a professional. You fine-tune the little things to help you become a better player. And he has done that."
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