His wife, Heather, refers to it as ‘gardening’. But Derek Carr prefers another name: ‘I call it “mini farming,”‘ the former quarterback tells the Daily Mail.
‘We’re growing our own food and our own crops in our backyard.’ And most days this summer, the 34-year-old has been hard at work, a cowboy hat shielding his face from the sun.
‘Oh, man, I got all kinds of veggies, we’re crushing it,’ he says, before painting a picture of his new office.
‘We got all the berries. I got a watermelon, zucchini, squash, broccoli. I got spinach over there, tomatoes, peppers. We have chickens, so I get about eight eggs a day.’
It’s a team effort with Heather. ‘She makes me do all the labor, and then she gets to take care of it and tend to it,’ Carr explains.
Back in January, the 34-year-old revealed that the family was moving to his birthplace, Fresno, California. A few months later, he made the shock decision to retire from football. Carr spent 11 seasons in the NFL, first with the Raiders and then the Saints.
Quarterback Derek Carr (pictured) spent 11 seasons in the NFL with the Raiders and then the Saints
The 34-year-old is now ‘mini farming’ the likes of watermelon, zucchini and squash
The Carr family recently took a vacation to Europe which included stops in Venice and Rome
He is a four-time Pro Bowler but, in May, the quarterback chose to walk away rather than have a shoulder surgery that would have ruled him out of the 2025 regular season. He also gave up a guaranteed salary of $30million.
Carr used to spend a large chunk of his summer training his mind and his arm – he would be throwing balls and watching film for a couple of hours a day. Now, he says, ‘I gotta get something to fill that [void].’
Hence the farming. It’s a hobby that suits the 34-year-old – during his NFL career, Carr learned to fall in love with the ‘process’, rather than results. Thankfully, gardening – much like football – allows him to enjoy both.
‘We’ve been making our own pasta sauce,’ he says. ‘We went to Italy and learned how to create our own pasta and our own sauce.’ So Heather has been using all their produce to develop new recipes.
Unfortunately, holes remain in Carr’s new calendar.
The 34-year-old is used to living by a strict, ‘sick’ routine. Just ask the coach who asked if a rookie quarterback could see a brief run-through of his week.
‘I ended up sending him this whole PDF,’ Carr says. ‘I knew what I was doing, to the hour, every day leading up to game time.’ The coach’s reply? ‘You are sick.’
So the quarterback won’t be among those ex-pros who drift away from the field and into the shadows. Back in May, Heather documented her husband’s first day in retirement.
It began with a topless Carr sprinting across his back yard, trailed by the family’s four children – Dallas, Deker, Deakon and Brooklyn.
Carr then headed to the gym and went out for lunch with his wife. The afternoon was spent playing golf and putting his kids through baseball drills. He ended the day tending to his crops.
It was a neat illustration of his new life.
Carr still works hard to stay in shape and he is edging closer to becoming a scratch golfer. He recently went surfing and pushed Heather off her board after she ‘tried to steal’ his wave.
They don’t mind being in such close quarters at home – which is lucky, given Carr now has much more room in his schedule for family time. ‘Just making up for so many years,’ the 34-year-old says.
Carr retired rather than have a surgery that would have ruled him out of the 2025 regular season
Carr takes on golf challenges alongside his brother David (right), another former NFL quarterback
Carr was away last Friday night, however, working as a studio pundit on YouTube’s coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs’ loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. He was christened ‘a TV star in the making’ for his forensic breakdowns.
‘I love the brainiac stuff with the game – digging deep,’ he says. But is there anything else the ex-quarterback will miss about football?
‘Definitely the camaraderie, hanging out with your buddies, going through that grind together,’ Carr says. ‘It just creates a special bond… and then the competitiveness, you don’t get that [outside the sport].’
Despite his best efforts. ‘You can try and create it on a video game,’ Carr says. He plays ‘PGA Tour’ and attempts to survive 100-player battles on ‘PUBG’.
Carr enjoys tussles with his older brothers, David and Darren Carr, too. They play ‘College Football’ against one another, while Derek and David – another retired NFL quarterback – have created their own high-stakes games on the golf course.
‘We bet the other day that whoever lost had to call someone randomly in their phone and say good night,’ he recalled. Carr won, so David had to call a neighbor from nearly a decade ago. ‘We make sure we keep it competitive and put the pressure on each other,’ he says.
Alas, there is really only one way he believes he can satisfy his competitive urges and apply his ‘mad scientist’ thoughts: coaching. ‘Never say never,’ Carr says about the prospect of working at the highest level.
For now, though, it’s baby steps. His four children have grown up playing hockey, soccer, baseball, football and basketball. At home, Carr already runs makeshift mini-camps, and he will start coaching their flag football teams this fall.
The retired NFL star is trying to teach his children not to ‘fall in love’ with fame or money
‘My dad had us play everything growing up, and all three of us were Division 1 scholarship athletes, and then, obviously, two of us played the NFL,’ Carr says.
David played 12 years in the NFL with the Texans, Panthers, 49ers and Giants. Darren, meanwhile, played at Bakersfield College and the University of Houston, and has coached high school football alongside their father, Rodger.
‘So that’s just what I saw. And it worked,’ Carr says. ‘I think it just creates more well-rounded athletes.’
And it can’t hurt to learn from a dad who has played at the very top. Even if the biggest lesson Carr wants to pass on has its roots in the NBA.
‘I really loved Kobe Bryant – towards the end of his life, he was really talking about the process and being process-driven,’ he explains. ‘And I can [tell] the exact same thing to my kids – just fall in love with the process. Don’t fall in love with people chanting your name. Don’t fall in love with the fame or the financial things that it can do for you.’
But, Carr admits, ‘It’s hard. You just hope that they listen. Even with our kids, they see me on video games and people asking for my autograph and think: ‘I want to do that.’
The ex-quarterback is doing his best to keep them grounded. During their recent European vacation – which included pit-stops in Tuscany, Rome, Venice, Sicily and Paris – he took his children to the beaches of Normandy for a quick history lesson.
Still, there is no escaping the reality of life as Derek Carr – even thousands of miles from home.
‘We were actually at the Vatican and someone said, ‘Derek?’ the quarterback recalls.
The family’s recent vacation also included pit-stops in Tuscany, Sicily, Normandy and Paris
‘I turned around – because I heard English – and I was like, “Yes?” The man replied: ‘Dude, I’m a huge fan!’
The family is already plotting their next vacation, with Carr – a devout Christian – eyeing up a future trip to Israel.
Before then, though, another NFL season. For the first time since being selected in the second round of the 2014 draft, Carr will enjoy the action from somewhere other than under center.
‘I may go to a Raider game here or there,’ he says. ‘Especially to take my kids to some games – that would be fun. Finally enjoy some of those moments with them – just as a dad.
‘I took them to a PSG (Paris Saint-Germain soccer) game when we went to France and just being able to be in the stadium and experience that with them, I thought: ‘I can’t wait to take them to football games.’
And so his to-do list grows by the day. All that’s left to find? The missing piece, to fill that void left by throwing and film and football.
‘I’m sure I will,’ he says. ‘It’ll probably be putting.’
