Intelligence and leadership were two of Chris Carr’s strengths as a standout safety and kick returner for the Boise State football team.
Now those skills have put Carr in the thick of one of the biggest stories in sports.
Carr is the player representative for the Baltimore Ravens. He participates in conference calls as often as once a week with other representatives as the NFL players and owners try to resolve the lockout that has jeopardized the traditional opening of training camps in late July.
Carr has been the Ravens’ rep for two years, serving as the liaison to the NFL Players Association on a team with stars like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Joe Flacco.
“Especially going into this situation where we kind of knew there was going to be a lockout, I wanted to be involved,” Carr said Wednesday. “I was fortunate to get enough votes.”
Carr played at Boise State from 2001 to 2004. He started at safety the final two years and was one of the nation’s most dynamic returners as a senior.
He signed with the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2005 and made the team as a return man. He moved to Tennessee in 2008 and Baltimore in 2009 — developing into a dependable cornerback. He started every game last season for the Ravens, who went 12-4.
He will be a free agent when the lockout ends.
“I would definitely love to stay here in Baltimore,” said Carr, who earned a degree in political science at Boise State. “That would be my first priority. … It’s extremely precarious because there’s no talking. There’s no dialogue at all.”
Precarious is a good word to describe the status of many of the former Broncos in the NFL.
Offensive lineman Daryn Colledge and fullback Korey Hall of the Packers, safety Quintin Mikell of the Eagles and wide receiver Legedu Naanee of the Chargers could change teams for the first time. Tight end Derek Schouman and safety Gerald Alexander aren’t sure if they’ll be on rosters this fall. And a bunch of seniors off last season’s Boise State team are undrafted free agents frozen by the lockout.
“It could be like you’re getting traded,” Carr said. “At the end of August you’re moving and the next week you’re playing in a game.”
Still, Carr says he’s “extremely optimistic” a deal will be reached before games are lost.
“We knew they were going to want to drag this out,” he said of owners. “Once it comes down to games actually being missed, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on both sides. The possibility of football missing for the entire season or half the season I just think is completely unrealistic. It’s too profitable.”
Colledge, in fact, figures a deal could be reached in time to save the annual mini-camps held during the third week of June.
“Everyone is smart enough to realize football is too important not to be played,” he said. “But it’s business and it’s egos and you never know what’s going to happen.”
Hall, the Glenns Ferry native who starred at linebacker for the Broncos, avoids the speculation.
“Everybody asks me, ‘What is the deal?’ ” he said. “I tell them, ‘If you turn on ‘SportsCenter,’ you probably know more than I do because I don’t watch it.’
“Either my agent or my mom will let me know.”
Ravens players are likely to find out from Carr, who e-mails reports to his teammates and is available to answer their questions. He says the players’ priorities are to get back onto the football field and achieve a long-term deal that protects past, current and future players.
The players are willing to work without a collective bargaining agreement, which likely would mean using 2010 rules. Those were disadvantageous to players, Carr said, because they needed an extra year of service to become unrestricted free agents and didn’t receive their usual retirement perks.
“We just want to play,” Carr said. “But more importantly we want to sign a deal that we feel like is fair. There are a lot of deals we could have signed that would have been good for a lot of the players. We know whatever deal is in place is for 15-20 years, so we don’t want to sign a deal that is beneficial only to some players playing now. Nobody has had that attitude.
“It’s been frustrating because we really want to sign a deal but we want financial transparency and we want to be treated fairly. I think that’s why it’s dragged out so long.”
The dispute has been marked by sharp rhetoric at times, but Carr says he doesn’t feel any ill will.
“It’s a business when it comes down to it and there’s a lot at stake,” he said. “If you’re running a business, you know you’re going to be an owner forever and you want to maximize your profits. That’s just the business world mentality. I don’t really get upset personally.”
