He heard it. The team had a huge need at cornerback and the Ohio State product will definitely help in that regard. Arnette was thought to go in the second or third round of the draft, but clearly, the Raiders couldn’t wait. '”Criticism from strangers is one thing, but criticism from people who know you and love you is another. “I met with (secondary) Coach (Jeff) Hafley and just really after one conversation with him, mid-conversation I told him, ‘You know what, I’m just gonna stay.’Carter tried to talk to Arnette early on, but he wasn’t ready for what he knew he was going to hear.The most amazing thing to me in this story: what kind of “fan” texts a college player with the sort of message that Damon Arnette received? Arnette played football at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, which is where Carter spent several years as a program assistant.
Ohio State defensive back Damon Arnette nearly left school to head to the NFL following last season, but after talking with Hall of Fame wide receiver and Fox Sports analyst Cris Carter, Arnette was convinced to stay in … The team did this last year when they took Clelin Ferrell with the fourth overall pick and it’s still unclear if that was the right call. The newest Raiders cornerback will have to do some work to prove everybody wrong.An interesting tidbit about Damon Arnette is that he almost quit football after his junior season at Ohio State. He was planning to declare for the NFL Draft and pursue his dream of playing professional football. Less leaving the house at night.Some of those mistakes were seen on the field last year.Damon Arnette graduates on Sunday and he has his dog to thank for it.I’m so Proud of you that was the best decision you could have made your granny would be very proud of you this ain’t Linda love you and continue to keep doing you and keep God first love you baby boyFollowing the season last year, Arnette was out the door.Arnette credits his maturity to simply deciding to calm down a bit.“Shoot, I got a (direct message) one time that said I need to go back to high school and pick a different sport,” he said. It makes me very mad to hear of that kind of b.s.“So, then I was like, ‘All right, can you live with that?’ And I realized, ‘No, I can’t.’ I feel like I’m not doing Buckeye Nation or my teammates a service if I’d have left on that note last year.”He came back for a number of reasons, but a singular purpose — he didn’t want to have any regrets.But then he had to come back to Columbus where his dog was waiting for him.A pass interference here. Arnette played football at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, which is where Carter spent several years as a program assistant.“I talked to him at the Rose Bowl,” Arnette said.
Did I leave everything out there. “He has known me since I was a baby, so our relationship is different. Per ESPN, he only allowed a 37.9% completion percentage as the primary defender, which was even better than his teammate Jeff Okudah, who was the third pick in the draft.Arnette doesn’t have elite size or speed, so it’s bizarre the Raiders would reach for him. And do I regret anything?’ And I couldn’t check all of those boxes,” Arnette said.None of it was easy to hear, but it helped him realize he wasn’t ready to leave.“A lot of dudes, they just mature faster than others and I feel like, especially with me, I’ve always just been an ‘on edge’ type of person. He was like, ‘Man, you aren’t an All-American. An interesting tidbit about Damon Arnette is that he almost quit football after his junior season at Ohio State. “And then when I was getting on the plane going back to Columbus from Dallas, he called me and just went off. However, he plays with good awareness in space and has the physicality in run support that zone defenses look for. He just looked at me and was just like, ‘So, you’re not even going to ask me my opinion?’ And I just looked at him, because I knew what he was gonna say and I just wasn’t to try to hear from anybody. His potential and success could be directly tied to what a team asks of him, which makes his evaluation and grade more of a sliding scale depending upon scheme fit.”
And then once I realized that playing with fire, you will get burned a lot of different ways, it just ain’t worth it. So I just looked at him, smiled, and walked away.Today, Damon Arnette becomes a graduate of The Ohio State University.“Really and truly, I feel like a lot of it with me has been off-field things that reflect on the field,” he said. Cris Carter had a huge impact on Damon Arnette's decision to return to Ohio State Dustin Schutte | 1 year ago Damon Arnette was positive he had played his final game in an Ohio State uniform following the Rose Bowl on January 1. And other things are being noticed once I got certain things right in my life.Ink me in as one who is happy he came back. NFL legend Cris Carter was actually one of … You know, everything he was saying cut deep, but it was true.