Barrett Carter's legacy won't just be defined by football

EASLEY, S.C. — Barrett Carter might be the most dynamic linebacker in the country, a player Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said he’s comfortable rushing off the edge or dropping into coverage against a top-tier receiver. He’s a former five-star recruit and an All-America candidate.

And yet, none of that interests the horde of third graders crowded around Carter on this Friday afternoon in April at West End Elementary School. They have more urgent concerns.

What’s your favorite movie?

If you could turn into any animal, what would it be?

Have you ever had any loose teeth?

(Carter’s replies, in order: “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” a shark, and “Yes, a long time ago.”)

Carter is used to this strange bit of celebrity. He’s wearing a black Clemson sweatshirt and a bright smile, and the kids are keenly aware he’s important, even if they’re not entirely sure why. Mostly, they’re excited to have a visitor.

This is exactly the reception Carter was hoping for.

“Seeing how their faces light up with smiles,” Carter said, “I’ve always had a passion for kids because I put myself in their shoes. The 30, 45 minutes I spend with them can really impact their lives.”

When Carter was growing up in Georgia, he remembered how the high school football players came to eat lunch with the younger kids. He was in awe of them at the time, but more than that, he was inspired. He wanted to be like them on the football field, but he also understood even then he wanted to be in a position to help others, too.

So for the past two years, Carter has been visiting schools, reading books and answering the barrage of questions that inevitably follows.

One kid is disappointed to learn Carter has never heard of a particular rapper he likes. Another kid is frustrated that Carter has only seen the “Harry Potter” movies and not read the books. Another has tips on playing Minecraft. There are a few football-related questions — How do you tackle so many people? Answer: Lots of practice. — but mostly, the kids like having a grown-up talk about things they like.

Carter takes it all in with equal parts amusement and genuine interest. Visits are supposed to last about 20 minutes. It’s rare Carter stays less than an hour. It’s time, Carter said, that makes him better.

“It’s an escape,” he said. “I’m surrounded by football, so to take some time out of my day to give back to the kids — that escape from football, you have to have that.”

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SWINNEY KICKED OFF his 15th fall camp as Clemson’s head coach this week. He’s had dozens of all-Americans, first-round NFL picks, genuine superstars, and he calls Carter “easily” one of the 10 best players to step onto Clemson’s campus.

The case for Carter as one of the ACC’s best players is an easy one. He played all over the defense — nickel, safety, inside and outside linebacker and at the line of scrimmage — and finished with 73 tackles (10 for a loss), 5.5 sacks, two picks, two forced fumbles, seven pass breakups and 25 QB pressures in 2022. No other FBS player has done all that in the same season in the past five years.

“He can fly, he’s tough, he’s smart,” Swinney said. “You don’t get to coach many guys like Barrett Carter. He’s everything.”

And yet, ask Swinney what really separates Carter, and it’s not the speed or strength or quickness. Swinney built his program on culture, and if he’d designed the ideal guy for Clemson in a lab, it would probably be a carbon copy of Carter.

“We say, ‘Excellence in everything you do all the time,’ and that’s what we’re trying to get these kids to buy into,” Swinney said. “Well, Barrett epitomizes that.”

Recruiting was a whirlwind for Carter, but he knew Clemson was the perfect fit for him almost instantly.

Carter started playing when he was 5 or 6, soon after his family moved from Chicago to Georgia, and he was good immediately.

“The size I am now,” he said, “I was like the same size in the second grade. I was that kid.”

Carter excelled at baseball and basketball, too, but slowly shifted his focus entirely to football, where he figured he had the brightest future. By his sophomore season in high school, his dad, Barrett Sr. — “Big B,” as mom, Alexis, says — thought his kid might have a shot at a scholarship. By the end of his sophomore year, he had more than 60 offers.

Carter seriously considered Georgia and Ohio State, among others, but after his first unofficial visit to Clemson, he told his dad on the drive home that he’d found the right school.

“OK,” Barrett Sr. said, “but let’s give it some time before you make a decision.”

Carter agreed. No need to rush things.

He went home, and he went to bed, and the next morning, he promptly announced to his parents that he was going to Clemson.

“I kind of just had butterflies in my stomach,” Carter said of his first trip to Clemson. “I didn’t have that feeling anywhere else, and I couldn’t let that feeling go.”

Once he got to Clemson as a freshman in 2021, Carter was ready to make an impact. On the field, coaches gushed about his potential — “special,” Swinney said, “from the start” — but Carter wanted to do more.

He started visiting schools every Thursday to read to young kids around Clemson. Months passed before anyone at Clemson knew. He wasn’t looking for praise, he said, so he’d kept it to himself. Now, Clemson helps coordinate with the schools, but for the most part, it’s still a grassroots campaign, even if Carter isn’t exactly leaving football at the classroom door.

The visit to West End Elementary ends with Carter posing for photos and giving out a few hugs, including with one boy wearing a South Carolina jersey, who was eager to note his allegiance to the Clemson star.

“It’s OK,” Carter said on the way out of the school. “He’s young. He’ll learn.”

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ON THE DRIVE back to Clemson, Carter’s phone buzzes with a call from his mom, Alexis, who wants an update on the school visit.

She loves hearing about her son’s interactions with the kids. She cackles at the question about loose teeth.

For Alexis, this is the side of her son that’s always brought her the most joy.

During his first real football practice, Barrett was the first to finish a sprint. He crossed the finish line and immediately looped back to find a teammate who was struggling, then ran with him the rest of the way. Barrett was 5 at the time. He still does that during every practice.

“He’s always been like this,” Alexis said. “He’s attracted to an underdog like a magnet.”

She remembers a time Barrett was in fifth grade, embroiled in a playground football game when a classmate with autism asked him to play with him instead. Barrett simply dropped the football, waved to his friends, and spent the rest of recess with the kid. Alexis heard the story from Barrett’s teacher, who’d texted her a picture of the two kids playing with a note: “Barrett is just perfect.”

On one of his early school visits, he noticed a boy who kept to himself, away from the crowd of eager kids. Barrett stayed late to talk to the boy one-on-one, and the two became pen pals. Now, when Barrett shows up at the school, the boy runs and jumps into his arms for a hug.

In high school, Carter volunteered for every charity event he could, his mom said. He volunteers now with “Our Friend Christopher,” a charity started to honor a high school teammate, Christopher Miles, who died of a brain tumor in 2020. A family member runs an outreach program in Columbus, Georgia, for at-risk teens. Carter and his mom made the drive in June to speak to the group.

Barrett and Alexis share a few more laughs about the kids at West End Elementary, and then she asks about the book he read.

The story was “Imagine,” by Juan Filipe Herrera, and on the first page — the first sentence, actually — he found a word he didn’t know.

“If I picked chamomile flowers…” the story began.

Chamomile. Carter isn’t a gardener or a tea drinker. He stumbled over the word at first.

“I’d never seen that word before,” he told his mom.

After games, Carter rehashes the action with his parents, and the conversation always ends by addressing his mistakes. Alexis remembers that text from Barrett’s fifth-grade teacher. He is perfect, Alexis said, but there’s always room for improvement.

They chat a few minutes longer, promise to talk again later, then hang up, a wide grin on Barrett’s face as he clicks off his phone.

The school visit was for the kids, of course, and Barrett loved every second of it. But if he’s being honest, that phone call with his mom is what really made it worth doing. That’s what drives him.

“All I want to do in life,” he said, “is make my parents proud. … I’m all right at football. But once I take the helmet off, that’s the true Barrett Carter. I want my impact in life to be much greater without the helmet.”