Carl McNally Pickens (born March 23, 1970) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

wide receiver who played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL) for the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The club's home ...

and

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

Early life

Pickens attended Murphy High School in

Murphy, North Carolina Murphy is a town in and the county seat of Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Hiwassee and Valley rivers. It is the westernmost county seat in the state of North Carolina, approximately from t ...

, a small town in the Smoky Mountains about 100 miles from

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state ...

. He played free safety and wide receiver there, intercepting 15 passes in three seasons and catching 71 passes, including 24 for touchdowns, as a senior, when he was a

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of s ...

magazine All-American. He also returned punts and kickoffs, and punted. He also excelled at basketball, averaging 27 points per game and attracting the interest of many college programs.

College career

Pickens played college football for the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

from 1989–1991, where he started his career as a safety and was named a Freshman All-American and All-SEC selection. He then moved to wide receiver, where he caught 109 passes for 1,875 yards and 13 touchdowns, and made the

College Football All-America Team The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best college football players in the United States at their respective positions. The original use of the term '' All-America'' seems to have been to the 1889 College Footba ...

as a junior. He did not return to Tennessee for his senior year. His college receiving statistics were: *1989: 7 catches for 81 yards with 2 TD *1990: 53 catches for 917 yards with 6 TD *1991: 49 catches for 877 yards with 5 TD

Professional career

Cincinnati Bengals

Pickens was selected in the second round (31st overall) of the

1992 NFL Draft The 1992 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 26–27, 1992, at the Marriott ...

by the

. In

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engines ...

, he was named the

NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Various entities present a National Football League Rookie of the Year Award each season to the top rookie(s) in the National Football League (NFL). The NFL considers the (rookie) of the year awards by the Associated Press (AP) to be its official ...

by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

. In 1995, he set a Bengals record for receptions in a single season with 99, and touchdown catches with 17. He later surpassed his own record by recording 100 receptions in 1996. From 1994-1995, Pickens became the first NFL player to record at least five receptions and a receiving touchdown in eight straight games. In his nine NFL seasons, Pickens recorded 540 receptions for 7,129 yards and 63 touchdowns, while also gaining another 307 yards and one touchdown on punt returns. His 63 touchdown receptions were a franchise record until surpassed by

Chad Johnson Chad Ochocinco Johnson (born Chad Javon Johnson; January 9, 1978), known from 2008 to 2012 as Chad Ochocinco, is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football for Santa Monica College and Oregon State University, and pl ...

in 2010. He is also known for the "Carl Pickens Clause". This was a loyalty clause that the Bengals created and added to Pickens's contract which would cause him to forfeit all or some of his

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

if he insulted the organization in public. This clause has since been used in contracts with other players.

Tennessee Titans

Pickens moved on from the

before the start of the 2000 season, instead joining the

. He would play only one season for the Titans.

Dallas Cowboys

On April 5, 2001, Pickens signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

. He announced his retirement on May 30.

Personal life

Pickens was arrested January 5, 2014 for allegedly assaulting his wife after the two argued on a movie date.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickens, Carl 1970 births Living people African-American players of American football American football wide receivers Tennessee Volunteers football players Cincinnati Bengals players Tennessee Titans players American Conference Pro Bowl players National Football League Offensive Rookie of the Year Award winners People from Murphy, North Carolina 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople