Cris Carter's real name: Graduel Christopher Darin Carter
Cris Carter's real name isn't Cris Carter. The Pro Football Hall of Famer has a name that's slightly longer than that.
By
John Breech
•
1 min read
It's a good thing that Cris Carter went by the name Cris Carter in life because if he'd gone by his real name, he would've run out of ink signing autographs.
During the first quarter of Sunday's Hall of Fame game, NBC caught Carter slightly off-guard when it showed his birth certificate on screen. Yes. his birth certificate. On screen.
Based on his birth certificate, here's what we now know about Carter: He's definitely a male, his birthday's definitely November 25 and he was defintely born in Ohio. However, his name definitely isn't Cris.
Carter's birth name is -- drum roll please -- Graduel Christopher Darin Carter. NBC didn't ask why he doesn't go by Graduel anymore, but they did ask why he dropped the 'H' in Christopher.
The answer? Because of Cris Collinsworth.
Collinsworth is an NBC announcer, so it sounded like Carter was buttering up to NBC for a job -- but he already has cushy position at ESPN, so we know that's not the case. Carter, in fact, did get rid of the 'H' in Cris because of Collinsworth.
Carter grew up in southwest Ohio and the Bengals were his team. Carter was in high school during Collinsworth's rookie year in 1981 when the Bengals shocked a lot people on their way to Super Bowl XVI.
