Carlos Dunlap and the Super Bowl Moment
Mike Vick spoke to the Kansas City Chiefs this week. His message? Cherish this opportunity because so many players never sniff a Super Bowl. We sit down with the player who knows this best.
PHOENIX — The week is long. The hype is exhausting. Conjuring motivational tactics during Super Bowl Week isn’t easy.
But Andy Reid has been here before — arguably no head coach has a better sense for the psyche of a football team.
Yesterday, Reid welcomed a special guest to speak to his players at practice: Mike Vick.
The former NFL quarterback relived his own turbulent 13-year career and said how badly he wishes he had the opportunity to play in this exact game. When Carlos Dunlap first saw Vick appear, he was upset that he never had the chance to sack the mobile quarterback. Vick is the one player who got away on his trek toward 100 sacks. Then, the veteran defensive end was all ears.
“Very powerful words,” Dunlap says. “It hit home for me. I hope it resonated with everybody else — how much of a privilege it is to play in this game because not everybody gets this opportunity. Many Hall of Famers, many greats didn’t get the chance to play in this game.”
Vick essentially verbalized everything Dunlap has been thinking about all season long. Right here was why he signed with the Chiefs.
Every Super Bowl features an older player whose hunger for a ring is palpable… and that hunger can become contagious.
The images underneath a storm of confetti are iconic, from Reggie White hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in an all-out sprint to Andrew Whitworth holding his daughter. Practically every champion has a veteran who’s dying for this moment. In KC, Dunlap hopes to bring this effect. He’s tied with Philly’s Linval Joseph as the longest-tenured, non-punter in this game without a ring. He was close to calling it quits when the Cincinnati Bengals decided to move on from a slew of vets. When his father was tragically killed last year, Dunlap needed to ask himself hard questions again.
Budding dynasties need a force like Carlos Dunlap. These are the players who remind everyone on the roster that these three hours on a Super Bowl Sunday last forever. Through our conversations this week, I lost track of how many times Dunlap repeated “Job’s not done.” It was at least a dozen. Surely, that’s all Chief teammates have heard all week.
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Dunlap was a Bengal lifer. He smiles thinking back to all of the personalities he played with from T.O. to Ochocinco to Pacman Jones. Through 11 seasons with Cincinnati, the 2010 second-round pick had 82.5 sacks. Yet, when Marvin Lewis was finally fired, Dunlap was one of the new regime’s many casualties. Head coach Zac Taylor went out of his way to remove old veterans from the locker room to create a new culture from scratch. A smart approach. It paid off. When teams do this, however, talented players often slip through the cracks. Halfway through the 2020 season, Dunlap was a nonfactor. His displeasure had nothing to do with money.
He was making $4 million that season. He could’ve atrophied in cruise control.
Seeking a larger role, Dunlap went through what he calls a ton of “self-digging and diving.” On a sheet of paper, he wrote down the pros and cons of retiring. This isn’t basketball, he jokes. It’s not like he could simply opt out of his current contract and fly home. And it was in this moment of deep reflection that Dunlap realized just how much he still loved playing the sport. His passion for football still burned.
Dunlap talked to his agent, and then sat down one-on-one with Mike Brown. He told the team’s owner that Taylor didn’t seem to have him in his vision and that remaining an employee of the Bengals felt like “stealing a check.” He wanted to be traded.
“I’m a businessman,” Dunlap says. “The organization made a business move to hire a coach and he didn’t see me in his future vision. I took it on the chin and did what I had to do for my business. … Every time I talked about football, I felt great. I wasn’t done. My passion was still there. So, that made it a no-brainer for me. I had to find somewhere where I could play.”
When he easily could’ve coasted.
“It’d be very easy because that’s what they wanted me to do,” Dunlap continues. “I was like, ‘Listen. I did not work this hard, train this hard to let any time just pass.’ Yes, I’ve been blessed and fortune to make a check. But my passion is playing.”
Nice and all, but there’s typically not a juicy market for pass rushers with a decade of mileage who struggle to crack the lineup of 1-5-1 teams. The Bengals season was unraveling and a youth movement was underway.
A fragile time period for Dunlap — retirement was a very real option. More real than anyone knew.
Dunlap started questioning himself in the middle of that 2020 season. Was he washed? Finished? Who’d even want his services rushing the quarterback?
The timing was perfect for the Seattle Seahawks, a team that desperately needed to boost its sagging defense. GM John Schneider traded for Dunlap and a rejuvenated Dunlap reinvigorated the defense. In 1 ½ seasons with the Seahawks, he totaled 13.5 more sacks with 28 quarterback hits. (“It’s amazing what you can do,” he adds, “when passion meets opportunity.”) Into 2022, the Seahawks switched from a 4-3 scheme to a 3-4, which diminished Dunlap’s value. After patiently waiting for the right situation, Dunlap signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in late July.
Again, the fit was perfect. The Chiefs were in need of another threat after finishing 29th in sacks. With Chris Jones, the NFL’s “Shaq,” consuming double-teams, they wanted an edge rusher capable of taking advantage of one-on-one matchups.
Of course, Dunlap’s life had also turned upside down.
On Jan. 22, 2022, his father — Carlos Dunlap Sr. — was struck by a vehicle and killed while walking in North Charleston, S.C. around 10:40 p.m. Dunlap Sr. was taken to the hospital where he died from injuries sustained in the crash. No charges were filed but an investigation was launched. An investigation that Dunlap Jr. plainly says here is “still pending.”
After the tragedy, Dunlap again considered stepping away from the sport. Never before had his father missed consecutive games. Senior was forever the football constant in Junior’s life. Dunlap allowed himself to grieve, conducted another “self-dive,” and pressed on. He took life lessons from losing Dad, a few of which he says aloud here from the Chiefs hotel in Arizona.
“Time is of the essence, time is short, anything can happen,” he says. “What have you done? What’s your sense of urgency? What haven’t you accomplished?”
Next, Dunlap made a quiet promise to his father to reach the 100-sack plateau, win a playoff game and do everything in his power to reach the Super Bowl. The Chiefs presented the best opportunity at achieving these goals.
Now? He’s on the cusp.
The two were always extremely close and have been through a lot. In 2014, more than $30,000 worth of Dunlap Jr.’s memorabilia was stolen from his Dad’s house, including his 2008 national championship ring from Florida. Dunlap wanted his Dad to hold onto it all before he got to the Super Bowl at the NFL level. Two years ago, they shared a special moment in taking the field together for the Bengals’ “Salute to Service” game. Dunlap Jr. grew up in a military family. Dad was in the Air Force and the Navy. Mom was in the Army Reserve as a dental hygienist. He has credited both for laying the foundation of how he and his siblings live their lives.
With the biggest game of his sports life closing in, Carlos Dunlap cannot help but think about his Dad all week.
“He’s sitting in the front row right now,” Dunlap says, “just waiting on the game Sunday. … He would want me to play for me, and to get it done. For me. To be present. To enjoy the moment. And then to celebrate with my family.”
Indeed, Dunlap is the living embodiment of everything Vick detailed at the Chiefs’ practice on Wednesday. Plenty of players on this roster already have a ring. Reid’s hope is for everyone to stay hungry as ever.
Fellow defensive end George Karlaftis notes that Dunlap’s perspective is one the team needs.
“He’s someone who’s very wise,” rookie George Karlaftis says. “As a football player. As a person. He has mentored me a lot. We play the same position and do some things very similarly. So for me, he’s been a huge help.
“Thirteen years, and he hasn’t gotten to this point. He’s as hungry as ever.”
Dunlap hit the 100-sack mark and, after five Wild Card misses with the Bengals, won that elusive first playoff game against the Jaguars one calendar year after his father was killed. Now, that he’s in the Super Bowl, he’s celebrating the occasion accordingly. Players are only comped two tickets apiece, so Dunlap purchased 14 more to welcome in 16 people in all. Family. Friends. He’s flying them all in. Figuring out logistics wasn’t easy last week, but it sure was rewarding. He loved hearing his high school football coach’s ecstatic voice.
Says Dunlap: “I did not want them to miss it.”
At one point earlier this week, Dunlap admitted he was shaking just thinking about the emotions of Sunday. This wasn’t an exaggeration. It looked like his arm was literally shaking on the table.
And when his Dad’s first brought up, he blinked rapidly. As if trying to ward off emotions.
To win a Super Bowl, you need more than a genius gameplan.
You need an ultra-motivated veteran like Carlos Dunlap setting the tone.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” Dunlap says. “I’m named after him. I’m his namesake. I’m second to only one man and that’s him. I feel like I was his second opportunity to do the things he wanted to do as a competitor and an athlete. To be here living our dream and have the opportunity to execute it — and to be on the best team in the world come Sunday after we get what we need to get done? — I think he’ll be super proud of me as I already know he is.”
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Happy for Carlos...always loved watching him play in Cincy.