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New England Patriots: Austin Carr focused only on football now

By Nick Ziegler

Oct 29, 2016; Columbus, OH, USA; Northwestern Wildcats wide receiver Austin Carr (80) dive into the end zone in the third quarter against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State won the game 24-20. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 29, 2016; Columbus, OH, USA; Northwestern Wildcats wide receiver Austin Carr (80) dive into the end zone in the third quarter against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State won the game 24-20. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports /
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New England Patriots wide receiver Austin Carrrecently looked back at a time when football wasn’t his only priority.

In high school, New England Patriots wide receiver Austin Carr was a busy kid trying to balance different aspects of his life.

With both of his parents being musicians, it was only natural for Carr to pursue that as a child. As many children in school find out, it is difficult to balance things like sports and music. Mostly, these activities take place either after school or on the weekends. In most cases, something has to give.

For Carr, he was able to find a good balance of both music and sports. He gives a lot of thanks to his former coaches that let him do his best to do both.

"“They clashed a lot,” he said to D.J. Bean of CSNNE.com. “Huge credit to my coaches, who let me kind of balance both. Especially in the winter/spring, you have basketball, then the spring musical. It was crazy. I was kind of a do-it-all, do-all-that-you-can guy and my coaches let me. Somehow, I made a way.”"

Now, with music behind him, Carr is solely focused on football. On the Patriots, Carr will have to be locked on only football, as making this team will not be an easy task.

"“It’s actually amazing, it’s amazing what life is like just focusing on football,” he said to Bean. “I don’t have any papers, I feel like the sky is the limit in my improvement, not having to run regressions at Kellogg, or having to write philosophy papers at Northwestern.”“It is very weird. And then, you know, I’m just plucked out of my community in Chicago, I’m back here in Foxboro,” he said to Bean. “I love the city, but I kind of have a lot of time on my hands to study the playbook and focus on football.”"

As a very strong academic school, Carr actually has a lighter workload now than he did in college. With the offseason not being in full swing yet, Carr has the opportunity to relax a bit and learn the Patriots’ complex playbook.

Next: 6 Patriots who will make the Pro Bowl in 2017

Furthermore, in the voluntary OTAs, Carr received some praise early on from coaches and teammates. While that is good, he still has a long way to go before he makes the team in 2017.

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