Robert William McQuarters, II (born December 21, 1976) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

. He was drafted by the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

in the first round of the

1998 NFL Draft The 1998 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...

College career

McQuarters was known as one of the most versatile players in

during his time at Oklahoma State, playing

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

, wide receiver, and

kick returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

. He started nine games at wide receiver as a junior and finished his college career with eight receptions for 245 yards (30.6 avg.) and two touchdowns. He rushed for 69 yards on two carries and one touchdown. He ranked second in the nation and set a school record with 521 punt return yards for a 16.3-yard average and one touchdown and added 195 yards on eight kickoff returns for an average of 24.4 yards per attempt. McQuarters played

Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball The Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball team represents Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States in NCAA Division I men's basketball competition. All women's teams at the school are known as Cowgirls. The Cowboys currently ...

for three years. Prior to attending OSU, McQuarters played basketball at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa. McQuarters played for coach Nate Harris who, in 1996, coached the West Team in the McDonald's High School All-American Game.

Professional career

He is a favorite of former Detroit Lions coach

Steve Mariucci Stephen Ray Mariucci (born November 4, 1955), nicknamed "Mooch", is an American sportscaster and former football coach who was the head coach of two National Football League teams, the San Francisco 49ers (1997–2002) and the Detroit Lions (200 ...

, who drafted him when Mariucci was

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the 49ers, then signed him as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the Lions. As a member of the New York Giants, McQuarters had a key interception in a 2007 NFC divisional playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys that sealed New York's victory. McQuarters earned a

Super Bowl ring The Super Bowl ring is an award in the National Football League given to the team members of the winning team of the league's annual championship game, the Super Bowl. Since only one Vince Lombardi Trophy is awarded to the team (ownership) itsel ...

with the Giants in

Super Bowl XLII Super Bowl XLII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

beating the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

Legal history

In October 2006, a Chicago judge dismissed McQuarters's claims that a bank wrongfully declared him in default on $1.3 million in loans. McQuarters claimed in a

countersuit In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against th ...

that the bank's representatives had violated

consumer fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensa ...

acts and its employees had forged his signature on bank documents. The judge ordered him to pay the bank's legal fees of about $20,000.

Personal life

McQuarters was known for his long

dreadlocks Dreadlocks, also known as locs or dreads, are rope-like strands of hair formed by locking or braiding hair. Origins Some of the earliest depictions of dreadlocks date back as far as 1600–1500 BCE in the Minoan Civilization, one of Europe' ...

which he cut in 2007 after growing them out starting in 1998. McQuarters donated the hair to

Locks of Love Locks of Love is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that provides custom-made hair prosthetics to disadvantaged children up to the age of 21 who have suffered hair loss as a result of medical conditions, such as alopecia, burn trauma, and cancer treatm ...

. McQuarters is known for wearing a variety of band-aids under one or both eyes, including those depicting the Nickelodeon character

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

. On April 29, 2011, McQuarters was shot once in the back as he departed a friend's house in Tulsa. McQuarters was not seriously hurt, and was able to drive himself to the hospital. He described the gunman as a man wearing a ski mask.

References

External links

College Football Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:McQuarters, R. W. 1976 births Living people Sportspeople from Tulsa, Oklahoma African-American players of American football American football cornerbacks American shooting survivors Booker T. Washington High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) alumni Oklahoma State Cowboys football players Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball players San Francisco 49ers players Chicago Bears players Detroit Lions players New York Giants players Players of American football from Oklahoma American men's basketball players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople