The photo is from just before her son’s second birthday. Tracy Beck still has it on her phone: Carson is gripping Nerf basketball and soccer balls to his head while holding and looking at a football. It’s like he knew which sport would become his calling.
His family members knew he loved sports. They knew he would be tall: Born three weeks early, he was still 21 inches, 7 pounds and 5 ounces. He proved to be smart: His younger sister, Kylie, marvels at Carson’s ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute.
“He just sees the colors, sees the patterns. Everything fits together,” Kylie said. “Football is a puzzle. He can fit all the pieces together. Who he’s passing it to, who he needs to hand it off to. Everything, it all comes together for him.”
Except when it doesn’t. Like on one recent Sunday afternoon at a golf simulator in the back room of Parsons Xtreme Golf store in Atlanta. Beck was being fitted for a new golf grip, and a swing he took would have gone high. A store worker went to get him another grip. Beck looked at a friend, smiled and shook his body.
“I’m so nervous,” he said.
He was given an iron and swung. It felt good. But he hit another, and it was too low. Don’t worry, the store worker said, the video can be deleted.
“Delete the camera. Delete the film,” Beck said with a smile.
Even at a young age, Carson Beck’s focus was on football. (Courtesy of Tracy Beck)
Beck got another iron, and he hit that one solid.
“I hope everybody got that on video,” Beck said. “I do that every time.”
He smiled. Life has been fun lately for Beck. He is the starting quarterback at Georgia. He drives a Lamborghini, in case you haven’t heard, the fruits of money from name, image and likeness deals. The reason he was in the golf simulator is another NIL deal, with PXG golf and The Players’ Lounge, an NIL entity.
In this new era of NIL, Beck is a poster child. A test case. And sometimes he gets criticized for it.
“It’s so interesting because it’s a new situation,” Beck said of NIL and any criticism that may come with it. “When I first got here, I was happy to get my $220 stipend the second week. It’s so weird to look back and that was reality four or five years ago. Now I mean freshmen are coming in and getting bags. They’re getting paid. It’s just such a different time. It’s weird to navigate.
“Over the years I think we’ll see regulation and that type of thing. But right now, yeah you’re right, we’re the new guys, and it’s an interesting situation to be in.”
Beck is getting the bag. He’s enjoying his life. And he earned it.
GO DEEPER
Georgia QB Carson Beck on his famous Lamborghini in the NIL age: ‘It’s just a car’
Thinking back on Beck’s career — he’s entering his fifth year at Georgia — it’s easy to think about the long term. Beck didn’t at first. He was antsy. But that changed.
“Probably somewhere in my second year,” Beck said.
It’s not hard to figure out when “somewhere” was during the 2021 season. Sometime after Week 2, when then-starter JT Daniels was hurt, Beck was given the chance to replace him in practice … and struggled. Stetson Bennett got the start instead, the rest is history, and Beck’s career at Georgia could have been. The transfer portal seemed to await.
Beck thought differently. It’s fine, he decided. Just keep getting better, and when the next chance comes, he would be ready.
Kirby Smart has talked about Beck’s baseball mentality, especially being on the mound, and how it translates to the pressure a quarterback faces. But it was golf that helped teach Beck the lesson of patience. When Beck started playing more golf a few years ago, he had to change his whole swing and shake off his baseball habits. It took time, but he got there.
“I think golf has taught me patience,” Beck said. “When I was younger, I had no patience. Now I’d say I’m very patient.”
And calm, a calmness that has amazed Smart and Beck’s mother. Smart has called him “Mr. Mellow.” Tracy watched games last year and got so stressed that she cried. Then she and Kylie would go down to the field, and Carson could notice how worn out they were emotionally.
“Mom, don’t ever be nervous,” Carson told her after one game. “I’ve got this.”
Carson Beck originally committed to Florida for baseball but switched his focus to football and eventually signed with Georgia. (Courtesy of Tracy Beck)
Tracy grew up in Clinton, Md., and went to Maryland, where she was on the dance team. She also danced for the Washington Bullets. Eventually, she moved to Annapolis and met Chris Beck, who was a linebacker at the Naval Academy. (They are now divorced.) They moved around before settling in Jacksonville, Fla., where Carson and Kylie were born.
It was easy to see at a young age that Beck had a strong arm, gunning baseballs in from the outfield on his Little League teams. That looked like it would be his sport. South Carolina offered him a baseball scholarship as a ninth-grader, and Beck committed to Florida for baseball. But it took a turn in 10th grade: The high school team’s starting quarterback got hurt, Beck stepped in for the final four games, and that’s when Alabama and others started showing interest.
“Once that all started, we all knew,” Tracy said.
Beck transferred to Mandarin High School to face better competition. He flipped his commitment from Florida to Alabama, with the idea of playing both football and baseball. But Georgia didn’t give up: James Coley was his main recruiter, visiting the Beck house with tight ends coach Todd Hartley. After decommitting from Nick Saban’s Alabama program and seriously considering Dan Mullen and Florida, Beck decided to head to Athens.
And so began the long wait. Beck enrolled in January 2020, only to return home a few months later when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He did video calls with then-offensive coordinator Todd Monken, but it wasn’t the same as going through an actual spring practice. So as things unraveled at quarterback during the 2020 season — Jamie Newman opting out, Daniels not being healthy enough, D’Wan Mathis struggling, Bennett up and down — Beck was not an option.
The next year looked to be different. Daniels was the starter, but Beck was getting the second-team reps ahead of Bennett. What happened during the second week before the team’s game against UAB has gone down in program lore, with erroneous reports as late as the morning of the game that Beck would be starting. But Tracy knew differently because Beck had called earlier in the week to say Bennett was starting.
“People were texting me: ‘It’s all over the news, Carson is the starter.’ I’m like: ‘No he’s not, I promise,’” she said, laughing. “In hindsight, you just kind of look at knowing things do happen for a reason. His mind, his body, I thought he was great too, but he knows he’s mature, he’s ready. We all saw it these past two years. So in hindsight, it all happened for a reason. And we were happy for Stetson.”
So Beck waited. He served as Bennett’s main backup in 2022, collected his second national championship ring and then won the starting job last year. In the era of transfer quarterbacks, Beck was a throwback: Starting his first game in his fourth year at the same school, he finished third in the nation in passing yards, behind only Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix. And while Beck looked into the NFL draft, he preferred to stay at Georgia, just because he had waited so long to start and didn’t want to go pro if it meant probably sitting and waiting again.
The decision wasn’t about getting more NIL money, Tracy said quite adamantly.
“There was no negotiating for money. That’s not who Kirby is. That’s not who this program is about, and that’s not who Carson is,” she said. “I think it’s cool he can do NIL this year and have an opportunity for all that. And those boys work so hard. I have never seen kids work as hard as they do. I mean it’s a full-time job to be a football player at the University of Georgia.”
And after working so hard, Beck decided it was time to cut loose a bit.
Carson Beck signed an NIL deal with PXG golf and The Players’ Lounge. (Seth Emerson / The Athletic)
Beck was asked what’s the coolest thing to happen to him off the field. He thought for a moment and laughed: He sat courtside for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. He played golf in Arizona, as well as in Los Angeles.
“The last year, I’ve done some cool things, I’m not gonna lie,” he said. “The last year has been crazy. Sometimes I can’t believe it. But the last four years I worked so hard. And to get to do the things I got to do, I’m super blessed and grateful for it.”
And yes, there was the Lamborghini. He always has loved cars and saw it as just that, a chance to get a dream car. He called his mother on the way to the dealership, just to tell her. Tracy supported and trusted his decision either way.
“He’s so laid back and so focused on football and Georgia and his team. To him, that’s such a cool thing and be able to represent and do things for Georgia and for NIL,” Tracy said. “But at the end of the day, talking about the car, it’s just a car. It’s very cool and amazing that he can drive something like that. But at the end of the day, it’s more about the team and coming back to try and do what they want to do this year.”
Beck’s car still became an example of perceived NIL excess, even though apparently not to anyone around Beck. His teammates have endorsed it, especially since Beck gave them rides. Smart made a crack about it while speaking recently to the Macon Touchdown Club, which he probably wouldn’t do if he was bothered by it.
Beck said he hasn’t talked to Smart or offensive coordinator Mike Bobo about all this.
“I think they know I’m in a good head space as far as that goes. I’m not going to get distracted,” Beck said. “Obviously, I have goals and aspirations on what I want to do in the future, and I’m not nearly close to where I want to be at.”
Aaron Murray, a former Georgia quarterback who is now with The Players’ Lounge, played in an era when this wasn’t possible. But he’s an example of how ridiculous the old NCAA rules were: As soon as Murray’s college career ended, after tearing his ACL late in the 2013 season, he began signing autographs for money. That meant he couldn’t be on Georgia’s sideline for the bowl game. Now, he wouldn’t have to make that choice.
“Carson should continue to be selective about what deals he makes, and I think he does,” Murray said. “And I think he understands the bigger picture. Carson has the chance to be the No. 1 pick in the draft next year. That is way more life-changing than the couple million dollars he can make this year.”
Could it all be a distraction? Murray thinks Beck will be fine, having the first year of starting under his belt. Murray knows Dan Everett, the head of Beck’s management agency, and thinks that the group does a good job of not putting too much on Beck’s plate.
“Carson’s got some sneaky swagger to him,” Murray said. “Him and Stetson are very different personalities. Stetson’s a good ol’ country boy, driving the pickup truck, wearing the boots. Carson’s a little more wearing the chains, wearing the Gucci, driving the Lambo. At the end of the day, one of the best things I’ve learned from Andy Reid (Murray was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs) is that as long as you’re not being an idiot off the field, you’ve gotta be who you are.
“You’ve got to let your personality shine. As long as it doesn’t take away from the weight room, the film room, the practice field or the game, if you want to be a little swaggy off the field, if it’s you, then be you, be authentic.”
And that is Beck. But so was all the work he put in to be good at sports. So was taking five classes last semester while he started at quarterback. So was waiting for three years without starting, a rarity in the portal era.
Beck toiled for three years, then had a good year. Now, he’s enjoying that.
“It’s just good to give yourselves a break,” he said. “And enjoy yourself. And reward yourself for your hard work. For the past four or five years I’ve been coming after it, and I really haven’t given myself a chance to buy myself anything. Every break I go home and I throw and I work out. Four years straight, it gets to you. And this year I’ve really been trying to take the time to reward myself. That doesn’t mean that I’m working any less than what I have in the past. If anything it just makes me work harder …
“I mean, yeah I hear (the criticism). But like anything, it only makes me focus even harder to retain the things I have and to be able to upgrade in the future and do the things that I want to do.”
A short time later, Beck got his new golf grip, posed for some publicity photos, then got in his nice new car and headed home. Back to Athens, back to work and the life he has made for himself.
(Top photos: Getty Images and Tracy Beck)
