Adam Carriker attended the University of Nebraska and was nominated for numerous awards during his junior and senior seasons like First-Team All-Big 12 and Big 12 DL of the Year. He indirectly served as someone Ndamukong Suh looked up to. He entered the 2007 NFL Draft, and was selected 13th overall by the St. Louis Rams. He then was traded to the Washington Redskins. This most recent season, he totaled 34 tackles, and 5.5 sacks. He signed a contract extension with the Washington Redskins.

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Announcement : My name is Max Strauss with www.prointerviews.org/, www.facebook.com/ProInterviews/ and www.twitter.com/ProInterviews/. I’d like to welcome you to the interview with DE, Adam Carriker. Carriker attended the University of Nebraska and was nominated for numerous awards during his junior and senior seasons like First-Team All-Big 12 and Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year. He indirectly served as someone Ndamukong Suh looked up to in his playing days. He entered the 2007 NFL Draft, and was selected 13th overall by the St. Louis Rams. He spent his first three seasons with the Rams, and earned the Rams’ Rookie of the Year honor. He then was traded after the 2009 season to the Washington Redskins. This most recent season, he totaled 34 tackles, and 5.5 sacks. He is currently an upcoming free agent in 2012. Here is the interview with Adam Carriker.

Strauss : How do you connect with your fans?

Carriker : I try to connect with my fans mostly via Twitter and Facebook. Anytime somebody sees me after a game and wants an autograph, I’ll do that. I’m usually one of the last guys out, but the best way for me to do it is usually Twitter and Facebook.

Strauss : Can you talk about why you decided to follow people back and why you are pretty active on Twitter?

Carriker : I like to see what the fans have to say, I like to interact with them. I have a platform right now that I won’t have forever, and I would just like to enjoy right now while I’ve got it.

Strauss : What was it like for you playing youth football?

Carriker : I never played youth football. I grew up playing basketball and baseball. Basketball was my favorite sport, and actually baseball was the one I was going to go pro in. I was always the best hitter, had the best fastball, threw 93 miles-per-hour during my sophomore year. It was all because my dad never let me play football because he was scared I would get hurt. Football was by far my favorite sport to watch, but I never played it until seventh grade. That was the first time I played.

Strauss : So you played quarterback in high school?

Carriker : Yea, I played quarterback in middle school, high school, and all the way up to college.

Strauss :What was high school football like for you then?

Carriker : It was tough. I’m not going to lie. We won two games in four years. Our record was 2 wins and 36 losses. So it was tough, to say the least.

Strauss : Especially being quarterback. Were you starting quarterback?

Carriker : Yea, I started my sophomore year. My freshman year I was on the freshman team, and then sophomore year I was on the varsity for three years. I was faster than every skill person guy we had except for one, and I was bigger than all the offensive linemen, so as soon as I got the ball I ran for my life. It wasn’t a lot of fun at times.

Strauss : I guess you played defense pretty well then.

Carriker : Yeah, one of our games, their coach came up to our coach, my coach told me afterwards, that he goes ‘Carriker’s not going to get a tackle tonight.’ My coach goes, ‘How do you know that?’ He goes because we aren’t going to throw the ball to his side one time! The coaches they enjoyed that. They tried to make it tougher on me, but it was what it was.

Strauss : I think it’s interesting to have a quarterback-defensive end combo.

Carriker : You should have seen my pads! They had to special-make my pads every year at a special orchestrated football camp. They had to special-make my pads because quarterbacks have tiny shoulder pads and defensive linemen have big pads. So my left shoulder pad was huge, and my right shoulder pad was tiny. So it looks funny, if you just stood there and looked at it.

Strauss : You went to Nebraska but you visited Oregon and Oregon State, right?

Carriker : Yeah, I wasn’t extremely highly recruited to be honest with you. Maybe it was partially my own fault that schools weren’t that interested but we told people right away (because we were in Washington state), that I either wanted to go to the two Oregon schools or the Washington schools or to Nebraska. To anybody else, we weren’t even that interested in, it was that simple. Washington never even spoke or talked to me. Oregon offered me a scholarship, then pulled it off the table. Then basically, my only offers were Washington State or Oregon State. Oregon State loved me, they absolutely loved me. Washington State really liked me, too. Oregon State got to see me first-hand at their football camp because we went there every summer at the high school.

Actually, I went to a few football camps on my own independently. I went to Idaho, went to Oregon, Oregon State, went to Nebraska, just on my own. I was supposed to go to Washington State, but by that time I was exhausted. Nebraska flat out told me that I wasn’t good enough to go there, they wanted me to walk on, and then when I said I was not going to do it and go to Washington State or Oregon State; I’m not going to pay out-of-state tuition and go halfway across America to be a walk-on. They called back the very next night with a scholarship, it was kind of funny. Even that was basically last minute. It came down to Nebraska, Oregon State, Washington State were the final three.

Strauss : So you called them on their bluff in a way.

Carriker : I didn’t think they were bluffing. Because the whole time they really knew I wanted to go there. The guys that recruited me told me I probably wasn’t good enough to go there. One thing that changed their mind was my last game of my senior year I had like 17 tackles in one game, and they told me you’ve come a long way since camp last summer and your last game. That might have been the only game they watched. They said you’ve come a long way and I think that’s what changed their mind. I didn’t think they were bluffing. I was like, ‘No, I’m just not going to pay out of state tuition and go half way across America when I could stay here and get a full ride.’

Strauss : Then, why did you go to Washington State and Oregon? Did you grow up in Washington State?

Carriker : Because looking at my senior year we only won one game in three years and I know my senior year probably wasn’t going to be a whole lot better. So for schools to get a good look at me, I had to go to camps otherwise they weren’t going to look at me and they had to see me in person. So I went to Oregon and Oregon State. I mean Washington never spoke to me, so they were off the radar. In fact, they offered a different defensive end in our conference a scholarship, and I was supposed to go to Washington State, but I was so exhausted after going to Idaho, Oregon, and Nebraska. I said ‘Coach I’m done I’m going to look horrible anyway.’ It was just a chance to get colleges to have a look at me. I grew up in Washington State.

Strauss : Oh, you did?

Carriker : I grew up in the state of Washington, so actually Washington State and Oregon were close to me Nebraska was far away for me. The only reason I wanted to go to Nebraska is my dad was born and raised on a farm in Nebraska. I was born in Nebraska. The reason we moved to Washington State was my dad’s job when I was three. We would go back there and my dad’s full side of the family lived there and watch Nebraska football ever Saturday. I mean we lived and died by Husker football. But that was the only time I rooted for a team with my dad, so actually Nebraska was the out of state team and you can figure out why from what I told you, but those other schools were close to home.

Strauss : You redshirted your first year at Nebraska, and what was the transition like adjusting to campus life and also on the football field?

Carriker : It’s hard, I hated it. It’s hard to go half way across America to a place where you don’t know anyone and no one knows you. I mean it’s not like I was a big time recruit. In fact, when I first got there and I was like told that I was their worst defensive line recruit. I was told I was too slow; I should play offensive line, and all this other stuff. You know it was tough I didn’t know anybody and I was homesick. I didn’t go home for six straight months. It’s hard to go from high school to college football. Especially when your team is terrible and you’re head and shoulders above the rest to go to Nebraska where I was you know I was a good player but I was just another guy and I was a redshirt. I was on the scout team and the guys on the scout team are not treated the best. I didn’t know anybody. I was on the scout team. It sucked. When I finally got to go home after the first bowl game and when I came back that second semester I had a blast. I think my biggest problem was I was homesick. When I got back for that second semester, I didn’t miss anything I was going out having a good time. It was a lot easier. I understand the independent aspects of it that’s why I loved the second semester. The problem with the first semester was half these guys are from Nebraska so they are going home every weekend. My roommate lived thirty minutes away. I didn’t have that option or have a chance. Christmas rolled around thanksgiving rolled around, I went to my grandparents a lot, but it was tough.

Strauss : While you were at Nebraska Ndamukong Suh was there, you were a first round pick then he was a first round pick. What was he like when you saw him at Nebraska and what you see him as now a bit too?

Carriker : When I was there he was there two years. One year was his redshirt freshman year, so he was a young guy. I don’t believe he played a ton those two years. I don’t remember but I don’t think he did because he was a young guy. I remember he was really talented and he was the only other guy on the team who could challenge me in the weight room and for a freshman that was ridiculous he was even close to me. I just remember he was really talented. He just needed a chance to show what he could do.

Strauss : So you kind of motivated him, I guess as he saw you go in the first round and now from his success right?

Carriker : I went back to Nebraska I think for the spring game right before his senior year and he came over and talked to me. He said ‘I’m trying to get where you’re at and do what you’ve done’, so yeah I guess you could say that though I didn’t think about it like that at the time. The older players motivated me when I was younger. I think of Chris Kelsay when he was with Buffalo, and I think of Trevor Johnson who I actually got to play with a little bit with the Rams. Those guys motivated me, so I guess I was just the latest when you think about it, but yeah I motivated the younger guys too.

Strauss : Did you haze him (Ndamukong Suh) at all?

Carriker : When I first got to Nebraska, hazing was ridiculous. It was actually beyond ridiculous, but when Callahan got there, he pretty much put an ix-nay on it. He pretty much took it out completely. The only thing we were allowed to do was give them funny haircuts in camp. I thought he eliminated too much you’ve got be able to do some things with the guys, but you know some things were just too over the top when I got there. Other than haircuts, we couldn’t do a whole lot because Callahan didn’t approve of that stuff so we didn’t do too much.

Strauss : Is that maybe why you missed home so much? What was your hazing experience like?

Carriker : When you’re on the scout team the offensive linemen were just real jerks. If you had a bag in your hand, they would knock it out of your hand. At the time, there was a south locker room and a north locker room. To go from the south locker room to the north locker room, where the Varsity guys were, you had to pay rent in order to go in. They had paddles and stuff and could beat the crap out of you. Stuff like that, if they were nice to you. If you fought them, it was worse.

Strauss : Did you get a haircut then?

Carriker : They didn’t do haircuts. They were doing other stuff when I was younger. The haircuts came along later when they pretty much ix-nayed everything else.

Strauss : Did Suh get a haircut?

Carriker : Yeah I think he did. I’m sure he did. Everyone else did. I don’t remember what it was, it was a long time ago.

Strauss : Back to you though. You had coach Callahan in Nebraska, pretty offensive line minded, how much did he help you grow into the player you are today?

Carriker : Everything he did was pretty much offensive-based. I would say what he helped me with best was when NFL teams would talk to him about me from what teams told me he had nothing but great things to say about me. I guess basically, he was a great reference. He was a good coach, but he let his defensive coaches take care of us, but he said really good things about me that helped me get into the NFL.

Strauss : Did you see him this past preseason or this season when you guys played?

Carriker : I saw him two preseasons ago and we played this season too.

Strauss : Did you talk to him at all?

Carriker : Just a little bit after the game real quick just ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ this and that. It’s all really formal so whatever you can too a person about in the two or three minutes to the locker room.

Strauss : What do you think was the best sack in your college career?

Carriker : Probably the one against Texas A&M my senior year because it ended the game, and we won the Big-12 North Title with that sack that ended the game.

Strauss : Do you have a favorite memory from Nebraska?

Carriker : I guess there’s a lot of them, but the two that stick out are The Alamo bowl when we came back to beat Michigan we were down by fifteen at one point and came back to beat them, and that Texas A&M game when we won the Big-12 North Title. It was crazy, they do this thing where they move back and forth and it made me dizzy. It makes you dizzy to look at their stands.

Another favorite memory actually, now that I think about it was my last home game against Colorado, and I got 2 sacks. I was the last player to leave the field and as I was walking off the whole south stadium stood up and gave me a standing ovation. They kind of went nuts for me and I thought that was really cool.

Strauss : Transitioning to the NFL really, you went to the combine and I know you’re a big guy in the weight room what was the combine like for you?

Carriker : Exhausting… You get up at 4 or 5 in the morning, take a drug test, you’re doing all this stuff and then not getting to bed until like 1am. I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep because you’re meeting with teams and stuff. The last day you’re there you run your forty and all that stuff. I was exhausted to tell you the truth couldn’t wait for it to be over. I couldn’t wait for it to be over to be honest with you. I’m the type of person who needs eight hours sleep or I’m jumpy. My wife can get five hours and operate just fine, I’m not like that.

Strauss : What was the Wonderlic like?

Carriker : To be honest with you, you always go to these places to get ready for the draft, they help with your forty but they never helped with the wonderlic. I was completely unprepared, but I got a 28 which is fairly decent. To me, it’s questions like if one guy leaves at two o’clock and drives for fifteen miles an hour where will he end up.The funny thing is… my financial advisor had to take it for his job and he got a 27. He didn’t know that he had to take it too. We both weren’t prepared. So I always throw it in his face that I’m smarter than he is.

Strauss : You did major in business administration…

Carriker : That’s because I didn’t know what else to do. When I first got to Nebraska, they asked me what I wanted major in and I said I have no clue. Sports, that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life. So they said, ‘Ok, we will put you in general studies.’ Well, after two years you have to declare something. I was like dad I have to declare something and I don’t have a clue what I want to do. He said then go with business because that’s where the money is. That’s how I ended up in business admin which is the most general degree you can go for. I had no idea sports was all I’ve ever wanted to do

Strauss : What was your draft day experience like?

Carriker : It was crazy. We were at my parent’s house. We had all our neighbors and friends at the house. I remember my dad was irate because he was trying to record it on an old VHS tape but couldn’t get it to work. I still don’t know if he got it recorded or not but I’m assuming he did. When you get drafted, you get asked a billion questions on the phone then before you know it. I never got a chance to celebrate with my parents to be honest with you we were going to have a celebration a party, but I ended up getting flown out to St. Louis and never really got to celebrate. It was kind of craziness .

Strauss : Where were you during the draft?

Carriker : In my parent’s house. Back then, they didn’t invite twenty-twenty five players they only invited the top five-six guys. They just expanded it, not too long ago.

Strauss : Was the media waiting outside your house?

Carriker : No. There was nothing like that for me like I said I got pretty much whisked away right away.

Strauss : Your rookie you were nominated to be Rookie of the Year for the Rams, what was your rookie season like?

Carriker : If I remember right we won like three games the first three years we only won like 6 games it was a long three years. The first year is always tough because you go straight from your bowl game to training to traveling from team to team. You really only get a few weeks off. Then, you’re drafted and you have extra rookie camps, you do a bunch of extra stuff trying to catch up with everyone else. It’s long that’s why a lot of rookies hit a wall. I played well it was just tough after I kind of hit that wall. It was fun being able to play at the NFL level was fun.

Strauss : Did you have a favorite memory with the rams?

Carriker : Favorite memory… That’s going to be tough, that was a tough three years.

Strauss : Was there any hazing with the rams?

Carriker : No, the Rams were into hazing you had to take the defensive line out to dinner and you had to take the defense out to dinner. They weren’t crazy with hazing. I remember a rookie receiver wouldn’t do what he was supposed to do so they taped him to the goalpost and soaked him with Gatorade but he totally deserved it though I don’t even remember who it was. It’s tough to pick out a favorite memory.

Strauss : Was it because it wasn’t fun?

Carriker : It was a long three years you experience that much losing… You win six games and lose forty two in three years. That’s a lot of losing.

Strauss : You didn’t lose like that since high school?

Carriker : That didn’t help. I thought I was over that.

Strauss : …And then you got injured which couldn’t help?

Carriker : I came in and started every game as a rookie I played most of the last game with one arm because I tore my labrum so I had to have surgery for that then my second year with one good arm and my left arm was at best eighty percent coming into the year.

Strauss : What happened with the trade?

Carriker : It obviously didn’t work out in St. Louis. Basically, I heard the redskins were trying to trade for me, I knew they really wanted me and I went to work just like any other day. It was in the offseason, I worked out with my teammates I was getting ready to go home and spend the weekend with friends coming in to town when they said, ‘Coach needs to see you in his office.’ which wasn’t extremely unordinary I’d gone up to talk to coach many times. I walked in to room and the head coach and GM were there. I knew immediately I’d been traded. Three hours later, I was on a flight half way across country and kind of my whole life changed, so that’s how that worked.

Strauss : What’s it been like in D.C. the last couple years?

Carriker : We’ve won a few more games but not near as many as I’d like to. I won six games in my first three years and six more my fourth year and that’s only a 6-10 season I asked my wife if it was bad I doubled my win total in one year, and not even a good year. Since I got here, there are a lot of good guys on the team. Actually a lot of the guys on the team have changed since I first got here. Very few guys are still here from when I got here, but the fans are great. They go crazy every game and sell out we have great fans. I like it here so far.

Strauss : What is your favorite memory in the NFL?

Carriker : The one that comes to mind is going back to St. Louis this year. Beating them and getting the sack to end the game. Part of that is when you go to an away stadium and everyone boos you, and as a team, and the past few years we have gone back to St. Louis, and they don’t just boo the Redskins, if I make a tackle I have to hear 82,000 people booing me. In fact, I had some people that are at the game cheering for me and some people in the stands wanted to fight with them because they were cheering for me. I love that and maybe it’s the fact that I love wrestling. Maybe it’s the fact, that I’m used to be doubted growing up. Maybe it’s that I like sticking it to those people who talk so much trash about me. I don’t know. I love that you know. I would actually be offended if they didn’t boo me. It would mean that meant nothing to them. I would say getting boo’ed specifically, personally, by 82,000 people for me and than winning the game and getting the sack to end the game. I told my wife that I can go to Nebraska to this day and if I go anywhere I would get recognized, I played there for five years, people love Nebraska football and that’s how great of an honor that was for me growing up, if I walk down the streets in DC, I’ll get recognized and people generally say what’s up, say hi, but when I go to St. Louis, and to me is so different to be hated and thought of like that, it is so much easier to be loved and everyone wants your signature, and how are you doing and patting you on the back, I actually got to love that too. For me, it’s such a different experience I don’t think a lot of people would want to experience it, but I actually kind of enjoyed it. One of my teammates came up to and goes, ‘Why do they hate you so much?’ he didn’t know the whole back story on it and I just laughed I thought it was funny.

Strauss : Kind of like LeBron (James) in Cleveland ?

Carriker : Yeah (laughs). Well I think he’s got a little worse experience because he’s from there.

Strauss : If you could describe yourself as any ice cream flavor what would you be and why?

Carriker : Well I would have to go with Neapolitan. Because it’s a little bit of everything there’s chocolate, there’s vanilla, there’s strawberry. I’m that guy that loves wrestling, that loves star wars, I’m that guy on my I-pod you’re going to hear Nelly, followed by Korn, followed by Garth Brooks. You know, I’ll admit it growing up my favorite singer just because she was hot at the time before she went psycho and shaved her head, was Brittany Spears. I mean I’m that guy that is all over the place; I’m a little bit of everything.

Strauss : If you don’t mind me asking why do you think that is?

Carriker : You know, I get bored, like if you make me listen to three songs of rock music I get bored, if you make me to listen to three of rap or three of country I get bored. I want something else. I’m just that way. I can only take so much science fiction than I have got to go turn on Saw than I can only take so much blood and guts and then I got to go watch something else. I actually grew up watching John Wayne and chick flicks, and I didn’t know that they were chick flicks I didn’t know that they were chick flicks at the time. It was just what my parents watched at the time I actually grew up watching chick flicks and all of the sudden I was in college and everyone was like hey did you see that chick flick, but to me it was just another movie, I didn’t know any different because it was what I grew up watching. My wife is actually very lucky because I will go to a chick flick and I won’t bat an eye. And she’ll go to a guy movie and won’t bat an eye either because she grew up on a farm so she can handle all that stuff.

Strauss : For someone wants to play in the NFL what is the best advice you could give to them?

Carriker : It depends on who the individual is, its general advice; it would be work hard, it just depends on the person. As a general rule, I would say this, go as far as you can possible can go, work as hard as you possibly can, until somebody tells you that you can’t do it anymore. I’m not just talking one person, I’m talking like you’ve exhausted your options people are sick and tired of you, it depends how bad you want it, if you wanted it bad than you just keep trying and trying until you’re driving people nuts, once you’re driving people nuts and they are still saying no, than let it go, but until than you don’t know what could happen, you could make a team, you could shock people.

Strauss : And is there anything else that you would want to tell your fans that we haven’t really talked about?

Carriker : That’s kind of it, but I have kind of a funny story, I used to do this weekly show on Omaha radio, and this guy asked me, ‘If you could be any kind of tree, what kind of tree would you be?’ and in my mind I was like this is the stupidest question I have ever been asked, and I just said, ‘Banana tree’. I just threw a tree out there, and I don’t even remember what was said after that. So like a week later there is like another show and they asked me what was the stupidest question you have been asked throughout this whole process and I said you know if you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be. And the next time, I talked to the other guy he was hurt, he was like you insulted me, you said I asked you the stupidest question ever, you know and he was so upset too. The ice cream question makes so much more sense to me, there are so many different things you could go into, and I was like the tree question was the stupidest question I have ever been asked you know, and he was so upset and mad at me for it, but I thought it was hilarious.

Strauss : Well thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it.

Carriker : No problem, it was my pleasure.

Announcement : Thank you for listening to the interview with Adam Carriker. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you leave your comments below as well! Please check out my website www.prointerviews.org/ for other interviews, “LIKE” the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ProInterviews/, and follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/ProInterviews/. Thanks again for listening! Stay tuned for more, and feel free to contact me.

->Here are the personal questions that Adam Carriker answered.<-