Those who love the quarterback quit eating, quit celebrating, quit opening presents the moment his world came crashing down.
With one "Blue 80, set, hut!" and one sack that twisted him 360 degrees, Derek Carr laid on the turf, his eyes widened in terror and repeated, "It's broke. … It's broke. … It's broke. …"
And nobody—not Raiders, not their fans and certainly not those close to Carr—could grasp that reality.
A "Derek's hurt" bombshell immediately lit up a group text message chain between his former Fresno State teammates. Neither former receiver Josh Harper nor former running back Robbie Rouse could believe what he was seeing.
"I was confused because I figured the game was out of hand," Harper says (the score was 33-14 with about 11 minutes remaining). "I got all the texts and said, 'No way.'"
Rouse replied, "No, he's not" and then flipped on his TV.
"I could just see the look in his eye," he says. "It was really bad. How he got tied up? It was nasty."
For a moment, Rouse thought he was dreaming. No way was Carr, this indestructible force, actually hurt.
Carr's old college coach? Tim DeRuyter's family was at his home in Fresno. All life drained from the room.
"To see it all come crashing down on that one play…" says DeRuyter with a pause and sigh. "You saw his leg underneath there? Horrible."
One of Carr's high school teammates and closest friends, Ryan Clanton, had watched his college quarterback at Oregon, Marcus Mariota, break his fibula earlier that day. His heart sank. About four hours later, Carr was writhing in pain. His heart sank again.
"I knew people who were there," Clanton says, "and they said the whole stadium went quiet."
Indeed, it did.
On the field. In the bowl. High up above inside ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
