Dolphins rookie has political bloodlines

DAVIE, Fla. – Since being drafted by the Miami Dolphins in April, cornerback Nolan Carroll has changed his mind and decided politics isn’t in his future.

He remains interested in an NFL career, however, and it begins Sunday when the Dolphins open the season at Buffalo.

Carroll’s the son of Jennifer Carroll, chosen last week as the running mate to Florida’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Rick Scott. In 2003 she became the first black female Republican elected to the Florida Legislature, and if elected with Scott, she’ll become the state’s first black lieutenant governor.

“I’m very proud of her,” Carroll said Monday.

As recently as this spring, Carroll figured he might pursue politics himself after football. Watching Mom endure the rigors of her profession changed his mind.

“It’s too much, the amount of work that goes into it,” he said. “Just to see how she has traveled — in the last week she has had to go all over the state. … I tell her, ‘You need to take a break.’ But I haven’t seen her burn out yet. She must be on some energy drink.”

The younger Carroll has been working pretty hard himself.

A former star at Clay High School in Green Cove Springs, Fla., he started only six games at Maryland, and his senior season ended in the second game when he broke his lower right leg. As a result, he slipped to the fifth round in the draft and had plenty to prove when training camp began in July.

“Every day I practiced like it was going to be my last practice, to show the coaches I belong here,” he said.