Safety Mark Carrier ran down the tunnel that leads from the locker room to the Coliseum’s playing field 18 times over the past three years while he was playing at USC.

But when Carrier emerges from the Coliseum tunnel Sunday, it will be as one of the Chicago Bears, who play the Raiders in a game that matches unbeaten teams.

“There’s a lot of sentimental value walking through that tunnel,” Carrier said. “I can remember some great fights through the tunnel with my own teammates getting really fired up. It’s all going to come back to me Sunday.”

Carrier, who would have been a fifth-year senior at USC this season, renounced his final year of eligibility to make himself available for the NFL draft and was the sixth player selected.


“If I had to advise people about (leaving college early), I’d say take the time and look at it and think about it,” Carrier said. “Are you mature enough to really handle what’s going on? Because you’re thrown into new changes and new life situations where there are a lot more responsibilities. Are you going to be sitting high in the draft and not be left in the cold? You shouldn’t just jump in right away.”

Carrier promised his mother, Marie, that he would return to complete his degree at USC, where he is three classes short of graduating.

“It’s not as if he’s abandoning his education because he only has a couple classes left,” Marie Carrier said. “After we discussed it, we decided he was at a point where he could leave because he was leaving with his class. I think he made a good decision.”

Although USC Coach Larry Smith has been a highly vocal critic of juniors leaving school early for the NFL, he is hardly critical of Carrier.


“I’m happy for Mark,” Smith said. “But I have to stick by my principles. I think you come to college to get a degree and when you don’t achieve that I haven’t done a good job.”

Carrier signed a reported five-year, $3.65-million contract that included a $1.5-million signing bonus only moments after he was drafted. Although the Bears negotiated with Carrier before drafting him, a violation of league policy, they were not penalized by the NFL.

The Bears insisted that he sign early, wanting to avoid a repeat of last year, when both of their first-round draft picks, defensive end Trace Armstrong and cornerback Donnell Woolford, missed training camp because of contract disputes.

After two other players, defensive end Ray Agnew of North Carolina State and linebacker James Francis of Baylor, rejected the Bears’ demand to sign on draft day, the Bears selected Carrier, who had been projected to go low in the first round or possibly in the second.


Carrier, 6-feet-1 and 190 pounds, is the second-highest safety ever selected in the NFL draft. Kenny Easley, formerly of Seattle, was drafted fourth by the Seahawks out of UCLA in 1981.

Did the Bears tell Carrier that they wouldn’t select him unless he signed immediately after the draft?

“No,” Carrier said. “But they didn’t want a long holdout situation, like last year where the guys took awhile to develop, and I agreed with them. I didn’t want to hold out, I wanted to get in and play.”

Coach Mike Ditka said: “To have a rookie and draft him and not be able to get him into camp is (tantamount) to not really having him. You almost waste a pick. It happened with us last year and it really hurt the development of our young people.”


When the Bears drafted Carrier, Ditka predicted that Carrier was a future Pro Bowl player.

How does Ditka feel now?

“I haven’t changed my mind,” he said. “I think he’s a good football player and I think he’ll keep getting better. He’s good for this football team. We’re delighted with him. We’re very happy we could get him. He’s a class young man. He’s a good football player, but he’s a lot of other things, too.

“I’m happy to have people like him around our football team because I think he’ll develop into a great leader for this team.”


The Bears are so high on Carrier that they cut strong safety Dave Duerson, who had made the Pro Bowl four of the past five seasons, so that Carrier could start. Duerson was picked up by the New York Giants.

Was Carrier surprised when Duerson was cut?

“I was very surprised because Dave was probably playing the best of any of us,” Carrier said. “He was a big key in helping me.”

Shaun Gayle, who had started at free safety since 1988, was moved to strong safety so that Carrier could play free safety, the position he played at USC, where he was a three-year All-American and won the Jim Thorpe Award, presented to the best defensive back in college football.


Chicago’s only rookie starter, Carrier is the Bears’ leading tackler. He has also deflected one pass, forced two fumbles and intercepted a pass.

Although rookie defensive backs are usually targeted by opposing teams, quarterbacks haven’t tested Carrier this season.

Because Chicago’s secondary covers receivers so well, intercepting seven passes, the Bears’ defensive linemen have terrorized opposing quarterbacks, recording 11 sacks.

Defensive end Richard Dent said he’s going to take Carrier and the other defensive backs to dinner because they’ve enabled him to make four sacks.


HAS MONEY CHANGED HIM?

Has becoming a millionaire changed Carrier? Did he splurge on expensive sports cars, a flashy wardrobe, a mansion for himself and a new house for his parents?

“I’m still the same old person, cheap as ever,” Carrier said with a laugh. “I just have a little more responsibility.”

Carrier’s only purchase was a new four-wheel drive truck, which his mother is driving. He has invested conservatively, sticking with certificates of deposit and blue-chip stocks.


Carrier’s mother insisted that he invest his money wisely and all investments made for him by his financial management team must be cleared by mother and his older sisters, Rhonda and Lynn.

“We’ve been poor for so long that just the idea of seeing (all that money) in your bank account makes it hard to just throw it away,” Marie Carrier said.

Although Carrier is helping his mother with some of her bills, she continues to work at the Long Beach Naval shipyard, where she’s a safety and health manager on the swing shift.

“If I had a mediocre job I might quit, but I’ve worked too hard to get to where I am now,” she said.


ALL IN THE FAMILY

Carrier went through a rebellious stage after his parents had divorced when he was 10.

He couldn’t understand the situation and Carrier cried out for attention by getting into fights.

“Mark was just an innocent child stuck in the middle of all this and he reacted very violently,” Marie Carrier said. “He became radical. He didn’t listen to me anymore. He was always involved in fights in the neighborhood. It was hard to manage him.”


That lasted six months, ending when his mother threatened to send him away to military school if he didn’t shape up.

Fortunately, Carrier was able to channel his aggressiveness into football, where he developed a reputation as a fierce hitter, earning prep All-American honors at Long Beach Poly.

“He really became deadly,” Marie Carrier said.

Before the divorce, Carrier’s father, Willie, was paralyzed after severing his spine when a car in which he was riding hit a tree.


Although Carrier has only an on-and-off relationship with his father, he said he learned to appreciate courage in watching his father persevere.

After the divorce, Marie Carrier struggled to support three children.

“It was a lot of fun, but there were a lot of bad moments,” she said. “There were times when we didn’t have food to eat and didn’t have any money to pay the bills. But one thing I can say about my kids is that they were never impressed about what Mary, Jane or Sue had. We didn’t try to keep up with the Joneses.

“When I divorced their father I told them that their life wasn’t going to be as pleasant and easy as it was before because we were going to have to live off my salary, which wasn’t much. But the kids never complained. They accepted whatever I gave them. We became closer and developed a tight bond.”


Marie Carrier and her daughters will attend Sunday’s game at the Coliseum along with 50 friends and relatives. They’ll have their own section in the last two rows of the Coliseum at midfield.

“Our seats aren’t that good, but I’d sit on the clock, if I had to, to see Mark play,” Marie Carrier said. “Since we’re in the last two rows of the stadium, I might put a big banner up saying, ‘Welcome Home Mark Carrier.’ ”

Maybe Carrier will notice it when he emerges from the tunnel.