The first meeting between Jon Gruden and Derek Carr was, as they say, a tone-setter.
“You’re not allowed to get hurt,” Gruden, the new Raiders head coach at the time, told his quarterback. “If you get hurt, I’m going back to Florida.”
Not that Carr needed the added incentive to make sure he was available every Sunday — physical ailments or not. Aside from the back injury he suffered in 2017 that sidelined him one game or the broken leg that ended his season with one game left to play in 2016, Carr just doesn’t miss football games.
Nevertheless, the challenge Gruden threw down back in 2018 has helped create a mindset that has stayed with Carr to this day.
No surprise, then, how Carr firmly set his mind on playing this Sunday against the Miami Dolphins immediately after suffering a nasty ankle sprain last Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Without even knowing what his ankle would look like the following morning, let alone a week later, Carr told himself, Gruden and anyone else who asked, “Yes, I’m playing.”
Call it mind over matter, but Carr has learned over the years that attitude and conviction generally determine ultimate outcomes.
“Any injury you have, the first thing your coach ever asks is, ‘You going to be ready on Sunday? And your first response to that is where you set your mind,” Carr said. Hence the immediate response of “Absolutely, I’m playing.”
“Whereas if you’re up in the air, you’ve already lost the battle in your mind,” Carr explained. “So anything that happens now, it’s ‘Oh, it’s a setback.’ No, I’m just getting it flushed out. It’s a different mindset.”
