As a teenager, a routine traffic stop involved a police officer pulling a gun on former Jets wide receiver Rob Carpenter
It was 1988. Rob Carpenter remembers the lights flashing in the rearview mirror of his car. The siren blaring. The future NFL star, days away from turning 20-years old, was about to be pulled over for the first time.
It was the summer before Carpenter was set to join the football team at Syracuse, transferring from Notre Dame. He was on his way home after playing some pickup basketball with friends at Long Island Park. While making a turn, Carpenter had neglected to put on his turn signal.
Moments later, a police car pulled behind him, lights flashing and the distinctive siren cutting through the heat and humidity of a typical Long Island night. Carpenter, an African-American, was being pulled over.
He wasn’t sure why. He didn’t know what was coming next. The officer didn’t want to pass him for another call. He wanted the football star to pull over.
What happened next has impacted Carpenter, who spent five seasons in the NFL including three years as a wide receiver with the New York Jets, to this day. The officer, who was white, didn’t merely pull up to talk.
He walked up to the Hyundai Excel, which Carpenter had borrowed from his father and at first, Carpenter didn’t know what was happening or why. But his instincts kicked in. His father, a military veteran, had told him if he ever got pulled over, to put his hands on the steering wheel so that the law enforcement officer could see he wasn’t reaching for anything. It would help in the situation, his father cautioned.
Carpenter said the police officer’s gun was already out of his holster as he walked towards the car. The weapon was not pointed directly at him but pointed in his direction as walked towards the Excel.
“I could see him pointing toward me from my side mirror,” Carpenter told SportsIllustrated.com.
The line of questioning followed, all with the gun out and pointed.
Who was he? Where was he going? What was he doing? Where did he come from? Anything in the car?
Carpenter answered calmly, his hands on the wheel the whole time. He relayed who he was.
That he had been playing basketball.
Was on his way home.
Nothing in the car except his wallet and keys.
The officer, gun still drawn, noticed the sweat soaked t-shirt. He scanned the car.
“Go the f—k home,” Carpenter remembers him saying.
The officer walked away.
After a couple of deep breaths, Carpenter turned the ignition. He then drove home.
“Life changing experience for sure. From that point on I had it in my head to make sure I made it out of that area. But of course as I grew older it didn’t matter what area I lived in the color of my skin made me a marked man.” Carpenter said.
“As of today having three sons it made me make sure they knew that even when they are doing everything right because they are black they can still be a target.”
Carpenter went on to have a standout career at Syracuse before becoming a fourth round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1991 NFL Draft. He was traded to the New England Patriots prior to the start of the season.
In light of the death of George Floyd last week in Minneapolis, who famously said “I can’t breathe” while handcuffed, on the ground and with a police officer’s knee on his neck, issues of police brutality have come again to the forefront of the national dialogue. NFL players have not only taken to social media and the airwaves to further this conversation, they also have joined in the protests.
On Thursday, Carpenter opened up on his Twitter account, sharing his story of this encounter with a police officer.
His hope was to not only bring to light this particular incident, but encourage black men that they are not alone in fearing scared, hurt or angry. By opening and sharing, he said, he can help educate.
“The overwhelming majority will have encounters just like mine. Just basically a harassment issue,” Carpenter said. “But just knowing you live with that weight on your shoulders is disheartening to most people and they are scarred for life.”
