Ricky "Tank" Carder Jr. (born January 18, 1989) 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 wi ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

. Carder played college football at TCU. He was a 2010 All-American selection by the

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Early life

When he was 10 years old, Carder was a BMX World Champion. Battled back from a life-threatening injury at age 13, when he sustained a broken back, broken ribs, a punctured diaphragm and punctured lung after being thrown from a vehicle, which then rolled over him. Carder attended Sweeny High School in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, where he accounted for 1,200 yards of offense and 116 tackles on defense in his senior year. He was regarded as a two-star recruit by Rivals.com.

College career

Four-year letterman at Texas Christian University, where he was named a two-time Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Year (2010, 2011). In the 2011 Rose Bowl, Carder was named Defensive MVP of the Game. He batted down a two-point conversion pass late in the fourth quarter that would have tied the game to go into overtime but secured the win for TCU with a final score of 21–19.

Professional career

Buffalo Bills

Carder was selected in the fifth round, 147th overall, in the

2012 NFL Draft The 2012 NFL draft was the 77th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players for their rosters. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held ...

by the

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

. On August 31, 2012, the Bills released Carder for final roster cuts.

Cleveland Browns

Carder was claimed off waivers by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...

on September 4, 2012. He has played in 30 career games, with two starts at linebacker, and is a primary contributor on special teams. The Browns re-signed Carder on March 7, 2016. In the second preseason game of 2017, Carder suffered a torn ACL and was ruled out for the season. On March 26, 2018, Carder re-signed with the Browns. He was released by the Browns on June 5, 2018.

Twitter Controversy

On November 21, 2012, Carder sent a tweet calling another Twitter user a “faggot,” leading to calls that he be fined and suspended. The tweet was in response to a tweet about ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold War, futuristic ...

'' made by a satirical comedy account. Carder stood by his statements, tweeting “I don’t agree with being gay or lesbian at all, but saying faggot doesn’t make me a homophobe, it’s just a word.” Carder has since deleted the tweets and apologized, claiming his tweets did not reflect his character. The NFL did not impose any suspensions or fines.

References

External links

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Cleveland Browns bio

NFL Combine bio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carder, Tank 1989 births Living people Players of American football from Texas People from Brazoria County, Texas American football linebackers TCU Horned Frogs football players Buffalo Bills players Cleveland Browns players