Fifteen minutes later, by the time Carter had finished delineating all of the young player's strengths and weaknesses, and even detailed how the prospect had taken tae kwon do lessons as a kid to help improve his hand strength, no one was laughing anymore. In fact, those in attendance agreed it was one of the most in-depth dossiers ever developed on a prospect.

Then again, given the unusual circumstances, it should have been.

Cal's Andre Carter is seen by many as the best pure pass rusher in the draft.(Allsport)

After all, Rubin Carter, who played 12 seasons as a defensive tackle in the NFL before moving to the coaching ranks, has known all about the best pure pass rusher in this year's draft for the last 21 years. Or ever since he paced nervously in a Denver hospital on May 12, 1979, as wife Diane delivered their son, Andre, as a 7-plus pound bundle of joyous NFL potential.

Typically in sports the term "bloodlines" is reserved for equine athletes who race around on four legs. But to personnel directors who have watched Andre Carter play, it is apropos to football as well in this case, especially since the genes of the father certainly played some role in turning the son into a thoroughbred.

"They might play different positions and have different body types, but the determination clearly is a shared thing," said John Ralston, who coached the Denver Broncos when Rubin Carter was selected in the fifth round of the 1975 draft. "When it comes to wanting to play the game and play it well, to not taking shortcuts and such, there's a 'like father, like son' thing going on. There is no way to deny it. Andre definitely jumped into the deep end of the gene pool."

Which means that, despite his slight frame, the younger Carter will not last very deep into next weekend's draft.

In a year when the top 10 prospects seem fairly well-defined and the lack of marquee prospects has nonetheless meant very little movement up or down the draft board, Andre Carter might be the player most on the rise. Scouts were initially alarmed when the 6-foot-4 3/8 Carter weighed in at the combine workouts two months ago at an anorexic 249 pounds. He was up to 253 pounds for his on-campus workout and is now said to be at 255 pounds.

Given a month to scrutinize the videotape of his last two college seasons, however, the scouts have ceased fretting over Andre's reedy frame and short arms. What they see is a prospect who is stronger than he appears, doesn't get bounced out of an anchor position in the running game, and rushes the passer far better than Justin Smith of Missouri, the consensus No. 1 end in this draft. The result is that Andre Carter now appears a lock to be a top 10 choice.

He is the second-rated overall player on the Cleveland Browns draft board, a prospect coveted by the Chicago Bears, who pick eighth in the first round, and the San Francisco 49rs, who are ninth.

"To me, he's the most creative pass rusher since Bruce Smith came into the league," said Browns defensive coordinator Foge Fazio. "In the back of your mind you might think, 'Yeah, but he's 250 pounds and that's not much.' But he'll be about 260 by training camp, I'll bet, and when you watch him on tape, he's deceptively strong. He does things you can't teach, like the way he uses his arms and his hands, and that jumps out at you. I really think he can be a special player."

No small irony there, since the player who established new school records with 30 1/2 sacks and 108 quarterback pressures at California almost wasn't a player at all. Although NFL stars such as Louis Wright, Rick Upchurch and Barney Chavous were regular visitors to the Carter home when Andre was growing up, he rarely made note of their celebrity.

When he was 11, after noticing his father's picture on the side of a plastic cup as he sipped a soda at a Denver 7-11 convenience store, the younger Carter realized his dad was a real NFL player. Even then, Andre didn't demonstrate much interest in football, finally deciding it might be a worthwhile pursuit when he was a sophomore at Oak Grove High School in San Jose, Calif., where the family moved when Rubin Carter accepted a coaching job at San Jose State.

"The one thing my dad never did was push me toward football," Andre Carter said at the combine workouts. "My folks let me decide for myself what interested me, and they were very good about having me find my own way of doing things. Now, when I went to my dad and told him I thought I wanted to start playing, there's no doubt he was happy about it. But, hey, up until then, he told all his friends I was going to be a tennis star someday."

It might be difficult to imagine Rubin Carter, a squat man who was known as a staunch defender against the run and a player with surprising quickness, regaling all his buddies with tales of drop shots instead of quarterbacks dropped in their tracks, but he suggested it would have been fine with him if Andre had not pursued a football career.

Once the younger Carter ventured onto a football field, though, he knew he had big shoes to fill. More significant, he had a pristine reputation to uphold, his father known throughout the league as a warrior who played the game the right way. Nearly a decade and a half after his career as a player ended, Rubin Carter still coaches with a sense of urgency and an obvious passion.

Not surprisingly, Andre Carter plays the game that way, and that comes through even on film.

"He's motivated and committed," said Rubin Carter, "and that's what makes me the proudest."