Q-Car Skips Game, Cut From Ruff Riders

There aren't many pro football options left for Quincy Carter. Just how far can one fall?

By FRANK HEINZ

Updated 12:57 PM CST, Mon, Jul 6, 2009

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Former Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Quincy Carter is out of a job again.

The Abilene Ruff Riders of the Indoor Football League cut the former Georgia Bulldog after he failed to show up for a home game Saturday against the Odessa Roughnecks.

Coach Gerald Dockery told the Abilene Reporter-News that Carter phoned him four hours before Saturday's game to tell him that he wouldn't play. At halftime, general manager Barney Welch said Carter was no longer on the team.

In an interview with KRBC in March, Carter, who has been arrested several times since his departure from the Dallas Cowboys, said he made no promises about his future behavior and said he was simply taking things one day at a time.

Before Carter's no show, the Ruff Riders were 7-6. The Ruff Riders showed their former QB that they didn't need him in order to win a game -- Abilene crushed Odessa 43-27 with backup Randy Hymes at the helm.

In 2003, Carter led the Cowboys to a 10-6 season and the playoffs in their first season under coach Bill Parcells. Dallas released Carter in training camp before the next season, and he started briefly for the New York Jets before poor play and drug-related arrests ended his NFL career.

The arrests didn't stop alongside Carter's NFL career. He was arrested twice this year, once for a probation violation in May and another on charges of drunken driving and possession of marijuana in February.

As the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, Carter automatically obtained a certain level of reverence from many sports fans and athletes alike -- though he never seemed to capitalize the opportunity before him. Carter fell further and further into obscurity as his life spiraled into a seemingly uncontrollable tailspin through the ranks of lesser-quality professional football organizations -- marred further by the occasional arrest.

After the NFL, Carter tried to return to NFL-caliber play with failed stints in the AFL, then the AFL2 and finally the IFL. With his lastest termination from the IFL's Ruff Riders, there is almost no where left for Carter to land.