Rob Carpenter (born August 1, 1968) is a retired

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 ...

wide receiver who played for 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 ...

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

and

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). In college, he played for the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

and

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

Orangemen Orangemen or Orangewomen can refer to: *Historically, supporters of William of Orange *Members of the modern Orange Order (also known as Orange Institution), a Protestant fraternal organisation *Members or supporters of the Armagh GAA Gaelic foot ...

and was drafted by the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

in the fourth round of the

1991 NFL Draft The 1991 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 21–22, 1991, at the Marriott Mar ...

. He was one of a relatively small class of underclassmen, headlined by Ragib "Rocket" Ismail, to be approved in the NFL's second class of players allowed to declare themselves eligible for the draft despite remaining amateur eligibility. In addition to Carpenter, other headliners among the underclassmen were

Herman Moore Herman Joseph Moore (born October 20, 1969) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. He played college football for the Virginia Cavaliers. He was drafted b ...

Todd Marinovich Todd Marvin Marinovich (born Marvin Scott Marinovich on July 4, 1969) is a former American and Canadian football quarterback. He played in the National Football League (Los Angeles Raiders), Canadian Football League (Winnipeg Blue Bombers, BC Lio ...

and

Jon Vaughn Jonathan Stewart Vaughn (born March 12, 1970) is an American former professional football player who was a running back and kick returner in the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons from 1991 to 1994 for the Seattle Seahawks, New En ...

(who also played for the 1991 Patriots). The 1995 Eagles, coached by

Ray Rhodes Raymond Earl Rhodes (born October 20, 1950) is a former American football player and coach. Rhodes played wide receiver and cornerback for the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. He served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles an ...

, were the only playoff team that he played for. They compiled a 10-6 record and won their

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Wild Card Game against the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

, where Carpenter caught a

Hail Mary pass A Hail Mary pass is a very long forward pass in American football, typically made in desperation, with an exceptionally small chance of achieving a completion. Due to the difficulty of a completion with this pass, it makes reference to the Catho ...

before halftime, however the Eagles fell to the eventual

Super Bowl XXX Super Bowl XXX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

champion

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

. Carpenter was third (

Fred Barnett Fred “Arkansas” Lee Barnett (born June 17, 1966 in Gunnison, Mississippi) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins. He p ...

& Calvin Williams) in receptions and yardage among wide receivers for the Eagles. He and Williams were the only receivers to play all 16 regular season games for the Eagles that year. He and

Kelvin Martin Kelvin Darnell Martin (July 24, 1964 – October 24, 1987), also known as 50 Cent, was an American criminal based in Brooklyn, New York. Martin is primarily known as the inspiration for the name of rapper 50 Cent. Biography Born in the Bronx bor ...

shared the punt return duties for the 1995 Eagles. He had two receptions in each playoff game (including the aforementioned hail mary

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

in the first). He ranks among the all-time leaders in Syracuse University receptions in most statistics despite only playing for them for two seasons. He ranks fifth in career yards (1656), ninth in touchdowns (10), ninth in receptions (93), seventh in yards/catch (17.8) and second in yards/game (72.0). The only others in the top 10 on all five of these lists are

Marvin Harrison Marvin Darnell Harrison Sr. (born August 25, 1972) is an American Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver who played 13 seasons for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL), much of it with Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton ...

, Rob Moore and Mike Siano.

References

External links

Rob Carpenter

pro-football-reference.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Rob 1968 births Living people People from Amityville, New York Players of American football from Suffolk County, New York American football wide receivers Cincinnati Bengals players New England Patriots players New York Jets players Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Philadelphia Eagles players Syracuse Orange football players