The entire Dallas ISD should have been punished for what went on at Carter in 1988. Everyone knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it.
A friend of mine was in the movie remake they put out a couple of years ago I'm expecting the 30 for 30 to be better
A few tainted the entire team. Best to say the desire for a AAAAA State Championship for Dallas ISD caused administrators to look the other way starting with eligibility and residency, and it went downhill from there. Hopefully the 30/30 will cover the story better than the movie.
Football players at Carter were allowed to skip class and were handed the answer sheet when taking tests. One algebra teacher dared to fail one student (Gary Edwards, a star defensive player who was soon after imprisoned for armed robbery). The decision wound up in court, with DISD eventually taking it to the Texas Supreme Court. The court cases were going on during the playoffs, and Carter was allowed to keep playing. They would go on to win the state title, then a reversal of decision months later made them forfeit the title. The algebra teacher was fired, of course.
I’m guessing the teacher was told (ordered?) to make sure the players pass. Wonder if the principal or others up the chain took heat as well.
Carter had to get a waiver to stay in 4A for the current alignment (would have been 3A for the old system).
The players moved from Wilmer Hutchins, SOC, & Kimball to Carter, now on to Desoto, Cedar Hill, & Duncanville.
The most dominating high school player I have ever seen. PERIOD. Granted I was just a high schooler myself during that time but I was confident that he would go on to be one of the greatest NFL players or all time.
Some I saw and some i didn't, but suggest: Earl Campbell Jackie Hawthorne Gordon LeBouf Bill Boyd Willie Ray Smith, Jr Larry Shields Warren McVea Linus Baer Bill Bradley Joe Washington Gene Mayes and/or Ronnie Scroggins (both made the other good, but Gene was the greatest Texas HS lineman perhaps of all time) Steve Worster Kendall Briles All of these took over and dominated opponents. While there are people like Joe Don Looney, Donnie Anderson, Kenny King, Billy Sims, David Overstreet, et al, I have omitted them because it is far easier to dominate 2A or 3A than the larger school catagories. And while I knew him personally, his exploits were before my time, but Wesley "Stinky" Nunez gridiron feats were legend including blocking three punts on three consecutive plays each resulting in a safety in a game with the final score 2-0. (The first two, he was called offsides.)
Eric Dickerson played AA ball, thus wasn't included, but with his attitude, I seriously doubt he could have dominated the big school categories as the others I listed. Please notice that I refused to say something like, "Dickerson, like (insert)", and that is because I refuse to list that piece of **** with great high school players. Again, I shall give him credit for being a great boost to our recruiting efforts, as well as those of OU and A&M.
I know that is your opinion, I just don't agree. On the field in my opinion he deserves to be mentioned with any HS name in history and not just the small schools. The guy was pretty dominate at every level he ever played. He's in the NFL Hall of Fame, inducted in 1999. So if he can be that in that class of the best of the best, I don't think a HS 5A team would have stopped him either. But I do get you with his attitude and not to mention him taking a pay cut to leave SMU for the NFL.
Of those two, I would take Yates, although Luther Booker was a classless piece of ****, something I told him to his face after Joe Tusa was kind enough to arrange a meeting and warned me that "he doesn't think like us". Yes, his team had great talent and set a scoring record, but Booker also showed what kind of individual he was by calling timeout with 2 seconds left in a playoff game in the Dome so Yates could score again while up 30-0. He helped a lot of young men, but class and sportsmanship were things he new nothing of. Carter was what it was, a total disgrace to Dallas ISD and Texas HS football. That said, I would take Earl's Tyler John Tyler team over either of those two.
I saw Jerry Ball play RB at Beaumont Westbrook in 1983. That dude was a badass. Not in Earl or Dickerson's class to be sure, but really fun to watch. And he turned in a really nice NFL career to boot.
I sat with Ball's family when Hebert played a Waco school in the playoffs at Tully. He was a midget by recruiting standards, but owned that game, playing both ways at RB and NG. His mother called him "Icebox" before there was a Refrigerator Perry.
The Plano teams of 86 and 87 would have tore the 88 carter team a new one. In fact that's what happened. PSHS dominated them in the game I saw. The carter team featured tied a game, barely squeaked by in some others. To call them dominate is false Best HS player I ever saw.. Maybe Raymond Claiborne. He was on an awful Trimble tech team. They had three players on their sidelines during his last game (vs OD Wyatt)....they suited up 14 kids...the guy did everything... All the time. No other talent on that team Maybe Rob Moerschel. Unbelievable option qb at that level. Never made a mistake, worked behind a mediocre line and no speed in the backfield after glasscock was injured. Weird I remember that... a former teammate of mine said earl Campbell was by far the best he played against or ever saw. Can't argue with him.
Back to the OP, I saw the documentary. It was okay. From Carter's viewpoint for sure, but not a whitewash.
VY, I'll have to watch it because it will be the first one that isn't a total whitewash. It's supposed to be investigative journalism not "let's make everybody feel good about themselves". ESPN sugarcoats the story, ignores and AVOIDS the truth. I know they are owned by Disney, but enough of FantasyLand. They don't have the balls to report the truth, but it would get them sued out of business, if not worse.
Overall, the film was not put together all that well. Mainly, as for the academic side, Carter's argument was that there had been put into place some program to help low-functioning students (district-wide) and that the favoritism to the player in question fell into that program. They presented that the energy behind disqualifying Carter was from the eliminated team (believable), and suggested it was somewhat racial (could have been, from some). They personalized the guys who committed the crimes, interviewing them and letting them explain that they got caught up in being hyped as special, losing perspective. However, they described in detail the armed robberies and the traumas it caused the victims. I believe they said that of the 11 players convicted, some with long prison sentences, not one had a repeat crime. There wasn't that much actual football, which is what I wanted to see. So, overall, okay.
