Quinton Carter (born July 20, 1988) is a businessman and 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 ...

free safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dutie ...

. He played college football for the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

, and was recognized as a consensus All-American. He was drafted in the fourth round of the

2011 NFL Draft The 2011 NFL Draft was the 76th installment of the annual NFL Draft, where the franchises of the National Football League select newly eligible football players. Like the 2010 draft, the 2011 draft was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York ...

by the Broncos. In 2017 he opened Big Jerk Caribbean Restaurant, which is franchised across all of Las Vegas.

Early years

Carter was born in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

. Growing up in the inner-city of

North Las Vegas North Las Vegas is a suburban city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, in the Las Vegas Valley. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 216,961, with an estimated population of 251,974 in 2019. The city was incorporated on May 1, 19 ...

, Carter attended Cheyenne High School where he played the

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

position in football, throwing for 650-plus yards and eight

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...

during a regular season. He ran for more than 400 yards and earned all-league honors in his junior year. Considered one of the area's top football and basketball players at Cheyenne, Carter is a member of the Las Vegas Sun's all-decade high school football team.Brewer, Ray
"Oklahoma’s Quinton Carter returns to Las Vegas to host football camp"
''Las Vegas Sun''. 31 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-01.

College career

Carter attended the

, where he played for coach

Bob Stoops Robert Anthony Stoops (born September 9, 1960) is an American football coach. He was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through the 2016 season, and on an interim basis during the 2021 Alamo Bowl. He led the Oklahom ...

Oklahoma Sooners football The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma (variously "Oklahoma" or "OU"). The team is a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is in NCAA Division I, Division I Football Bowl Su ...

team from 2006 to 2010. In 2006, Carter played on Oklahoma's

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

unit in only five games. He became one of the secondary's most physical players and earned one tackle against the

UAB Blazers The UAB Blazers are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs that represent the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The school is one of the fourteen member institutions of Conference USA (C-USA) and participates in Division I of the ...

. In 2007, Carter redshirted. The 2008 season allowed Carter to start for two games at safety, collecting 10 tackles in his first career start against

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...

. He broke up passes playing against Kansas State and

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, acquired five tackles against Texas Tech, and in his second start at the Big 12 Championship Game, Carter had eight tackles that resulted in a Big 12 Championship. He led the team with fourteen solo special teams tackles and was third on the team for the same number of special teams tackles. In 2009, Carter was named All-Big 12 second team by coaches and had an honorable mention by the AP. In this standout year, he started at free safety with eighty stops, becoming the team's second-leading tackler, and tied his career-high ten tackles against both BYU and Texas Tech. Carter recovered a fumble during the BYU game, broke up two passes playing Kansas, and picked off passes against

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, Kansas, and Kansas State. In the

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl ...

win over Stanford, Carter collected eight tackles and one interception. He ended the season with 88 tackles and four interceptions, placing him on the 2010 Jim Thorpe Watch List, the 2010 All-Big 12 team, and as a nominee for the Lowe's Senior Class Award.

Professional career

Carter was selected with the 108th pick in the

by the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

. In the 2011 NFL Season Carter became the Broncos' starting safety next to Brian Dawkins, ahead of 2nd round draft pick Rahim Moore. He would also intercept

Ben Roethlisberger Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr. (; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college footbal ...

in the Broncos' wild card victory over the Steelers, as well as

Tom Brady Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots organization, with whic ...

in the divisional round loss. On September 29, 2012 he was placed on Injured Reserve.

NFL statistics

Personal life

When Carter is not playing football, he spends his time doing charity projects. In 2008, he started Serving Others through Unity and Leadership (SOUL) to help kids in need through football camps and other programs. He also maintains that he does not play video games, which gives him the time to help others. Additionally, Carter has been named to the 2010 Allstate AFCA Good Works team for his work in the community. On March 9, 2013, Carter was arrested and charged with three acts of fraudulent act in a gaming establishment. Officials at Texas Station alleged that he added money to his wagers after the dice has been rolled in craps. He faced a potential 18 years in prison. The charges were ultimately dropped."Quinton Carter's casino case tossed"
''espn.go.com''. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-26.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Quinton 1988 births Living people All-American college football players American football safeties Denver Broncos players Oklahoma Sooners football players Players of American football from Nevada Sportspeople from Las Vegas