Harrowing Moments Far From the Field Matt Black for The New York Times Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr praying after practice. FRESNO, Calif. - Tim DeRuyter's caller I.D. showed it was his star quarterback calling. The clock in the corner said it was past 2:30 a.m., and that can never be good. Derek Carr's son was born with a dangerous medical condition that required two operations. He is expected to make a full recovery. DeRuyter, Fresno State's football coach, answered. His quarterback, Derek Carr, was a weeping, unintelligible wreck on the other end. Two hours earlier, he called DeRuyter to say, "It's a boy!" Now, Carr was sobbing, saying something about the baby being rushed to surgery, so he couldn't be at practice the next day and he was so sorry. "As a coach, you never like to get those calls after midnight," DeRuyter said. That night, I got a couple of those calls. That second call, Derek's voice was a lot different. He was shaking. Football never meant so little to Carr. He was supposed to be getting ready for his senior year. There was a Heisman Trophy campaign to mount, a Bowl Championship Series run to launch, team record books to render obsolete, a big brother to follow to the N.F.L. All of that changed three days into preseason camp, in the early-morning hours of Aug. 6, when Carr went from the face of the Fresno State program to a terrified father of a newborn with a condition that turned his intestines into sailor knots. "I saw my son throwing up this dark green stuff, and I knew something was up, but I didn't know what," Carr said. I've been around new babies, and this wasn't normal. I called the nurse over, and you could tell she was worried. The doctor comes in and tells me he needs to be rushed to another hospital and may need to have surgery. I called Coach and bawled my eyes out. He couldn't even understand me, but it's almost 3 a.m., so I know he has to be freaking out when I called. Carr does not usually have that effect on coaches. He goes to Sunday morning church services with his wife, Heather. He closes his eyes and prays over his food every time he eats. He seemingly never has a conversation without referencing Scripture. After some youthful indiscretions, he now seems firmly planted on the straight and narrow. For the past three weeks, however, he could be found at the neonatal intensive care unit at the local children's hospital, squeezing Heather's hand and being thankful for a baby who could not wear a onesie because he was vomiting so much. "I'm watching my baby have a baby, being so responsible and so strong for his wife in that hospital room," Sheryl Carr said of Derek, her youngest son. He's the one telling me that it's going to be O.K., that God's got this. I remember thinking that's the young man I raised him to be. That's how I always envisioned him. Along the way, he made some decisions I think he's ashamed of. Nothing different than any other college kid, but things so far away from how he was raised. Carr, 22, enrolled at Fresno State when he was 17. He graduated early from a private Christian school in Bakersfield, eager to begin chasing down every passing record set by David Carr, the Giants backup quarterback who was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2002 draft out of Fresno State. David Carr still holds the program's single-season records for passing yards (4,299) and touchdowns (42); Derek is second in both categories (4,104 and 37). Little Carr, as Derek was called, was instantly loved and locally famous, before he even completed a college pass. He was David Carr's little brother on a campus where David Carr throwback jerseys remain a best seller. He experienced hero worship by association. "Obviously, he has a great gift, but with that comes a lot of temptation, a lot of pride opportunities," David said. I would see things that weren't right and always say something to him. Sometimes he didn't want to hear it, but it was all done in love. Derek loved what he called "the college quarterback life." He partied and hung out with his mother's idea of the wrong crowd. He now sees the Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel on the news and is so glad ESPN didn't pay him any attention when he was a freshman.