Carter’s selection confifirms greatness

Dave George

Turns out Ndamukong Suh is even bigger than we thought.

In the opinion of the Football Writers Association of America, which just released its 75th anniversary All-America team, you can go all the way back to World War II and still not fifind a college player who dominated the defensive tackle position more than Suh did at Nebraska.

This, of course, doesn’t do much to change expectations for Suh in his fifirst season with the Miami Dolphins. Already he’s expected to take on a couple of blockers on nearly every play and still push Cameron Wake for the team lead in sacks.

Still, we’re talking about a player pushing his way to the front of a very hefty and monstrous crowd. According to the

FWAA, Suh and Lee Roy Selmon belong on their first team of all-timers at defensive tackle. Listed behind them are Reggie White, Randy White and Merlin Olsen. Those all are names from the Pro Football of Fame, and because of that, you have to figure that Suh, 28, will join them there.

Are there any other names on this all-time team worthy of discussion? Well, only enough to have fans screaming and blogging within an inch of their lives for another 75 years.

The selection that brought my widest smile, however, was Anthony Carter, former Suncoast High School star, as the third-team wide receiver.

Nothing about thirdteam honors to be embarrassed about, not when Jerry Rice and Larry Fitzgerald are on the first team, followed by Randy Moss and Florida State great Fred Biletnikoff on the second.

On the contrary, Carter’s inclusion on the list verifies his status as perhaps the greatest player to come out of our area. He was the most explosive athlete I ever saw in high school here, and that’s taking in a serious load of homegrown NFL talent.

It’s been so long since A.C. graduated from Michigan in 1982 and headed for the USFL that his legend has faded a bit, or else gone completely unnoticed among more recent South Florida transplants.

Let’s just say that he went from Riviera Beach to the Big Ten weighing 160 pounds and left it as one of the great heavyweights in that proud conference’s history. Carter singlehandedly got coach Bo Schembechler to abandon the old ground-andpound offensive attack for something more dangerous, something involving a pass attack.

The result was a ton of touchdowns scored by Carter as a receiver, a runner and a kick returner. He still owns the Division I career record of 17.4 yards gained per play, and that’s taking into account a world of innovations at the college level. A.C. finished fourth in the 1982 Heisman Trophy voting, too, behind Herschel Walker, John Elway and Eric Dickerson. No other receiver was even in the running and Dan Marino, a senior at Pitt, finished ninth in the voting.

Two other items from the all-time team caught my eye. First was the absolute treasure trove of running backs, with Archie Griffin and Herschel on the first team, Tony Dorsett and Barry Sanders on the second and a third-team backfield of Bo Jackson and Doak Walker. The way that position has been de-emphasized in today’s spread offenses, we may never see a team of horses like that unleashed again.

Then, by saving for last the position folks care about most, I have tried here to tamp down the knee-jerk reaction to anything involving Florida’s Tim Tebow.

The FWAA voters place Tebow second all-time to Roger Staubach. No argument here. We’re talking about two of the greatest leaders in college history, with Roger making Navy relevant on a national scale and Tim racking up 88 touchdowns passing (more than Elway at Stanford) and 57 touchdowns rushing (more than all but three Heisman Trophy running backs ever did in college).

Hey, it’s tough coming up with these lists, with nobody ever satisfied. Check out the FWAA website at www.sportswriters. net/fwaa/ and see if you can do better.