Bill Parcells had to break up a near father-son fight between former Cowboys coach and player Ran Carthon
These days, Ran Carthon is working day and night as the general manager of the Tennessee Titans. But not that long ago, he was wearing the silver and navy as a practice squad member and found himself nearly throwing hands against his coach – and yes, father – Maurice Carthon.The man who stopped it all? […]
These days, Ran Carthon is working day and night as the general manager of the Tennessee Titans. But not that long ago, he was wearing the silver and navy as a practice squad member and found himself nearly throwing hands against his coach – and yes, father – Maurice Carthon.
The man who stopped it all? None other than Bill Parcells.
Ran Carthon told the story on the podcast Bussin' With the Boys in a recent interview, describing the sequence as his worst football experience ever.
"That was awful," Carthon candidly told hosts Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. "Me and my dad got into a fight, we went back and forth on the field until the point that Parcells was like 'Alright, that's enough!"
According to Carthon, his father Maurice (who at the time in 2004 was Cowboys offensive coordinator and running backs coach) started chirping across the field and the pair went back and forth for a while before things escalated.
"So Richie (Anderson) is like 'hey little bro, come on man, you know that dad loves you' so I say some choice words about that and then my dad yells across, 'Hey Richie (Anderson), slap him!', so I yell back 'no, you slap me!", narrated Carthon.
Later that night, Carthon got home motivated as ever to prove his dad wrong, fixated on learning the playbook better than him so he couldn't say anything to him. Having sat down in the couch to break down the playbook, Carthon inevitable dozed off, however. But it wasn't the alarm clock ringing that woke him up.
It was a full-on slap from Maurice Carthon, who probably was expecting a different reaction than Ran's actual one.
"I start laughing," admits Ran and when asked why he was laughing, he had the ultimate comeback loaded up. "Because this has been on your mind ever since I said it and you know what? Now you better take your ass back to the office before Parcells finds out you're not there and I will call him right now."
If you're reading this and you can't recall Ran Carthon playing with the Cowboys, it's because shortly after the incident, the Indianapolis Colts called him to bring him back to the team after releasing him earlier that year.
Naturally, Carthon accepted. But not before a heart to heart with his dad.
"They sent my dad home to talk me into staying and my dad was like 'son you gotta go, not only is this going to give you an opportunity to actually play but for the sake of our relationship, you gotta go."
Fathers and sons. It's never quite that simple, is it?
