David Carter (defensive lineman)

David Carter (born 10 December 1987) is an American football defensive end and vegan activist.

Carter in 2016

Quotes

• I don't have the soreness I used to have before. I'm not sluggish. I recover a lot faster. If I get a little bump or bruise, it hurts for a second and then it goes away. I'm a lot stronger. I was shocked. When I first started, I was, 'What the hell? I have more energy. I'm a lot stronger than I was before.'
  • About his switch to a vegan diet. "Bears' David Carter: 300 lbs of veganism", interview with the Chicago Sun Times (4 August 2015).

• Football is a machismo sport, which is great, but everything can't be machismo. On the field and at practice, yes, you can be machismo, but when it comes to diet, you need to have compassion for your body. … My food is my medication now. … I get a lot of success talking to older guys because they're like 30 years old and have children. I tell them, 'You might want to change the way that you eat because you want to be around longer and see your family and your daughter graduate.'
  • "NFL veganism? David Carter, Griff Whalen have broken the mold", interview with NFL.com (28 September 2016).

• One of the things that pushed me to change my diet is that the average football player dies at 56 years of age. That's because they're constantly drinking milk and whey protein shakes, eating steak and chicken. … We thought, 'We're big dudes, we need to eat meat to be men.' I thought that too. But you're screwing your insides up. You're taking advantage of a helpless animal. You're killing a life that you don't need to take. With dairy, you're stealing breast milk that's meant for the baby cows and drinking it yourself. How is that manly? Men are supposed to be protectors.
  • Interview in the book What the Health by Eunice Wong (Xlibris, 2017).