The Baltimore Ravens had been coasting.
They garnered over 500 yards whereas holding the Seattle Seahawks to only 151, dominating for a 37-3 win in November 2023. Lamar Jackson outgained Seattle himself, accounting for 247 yards as he launched into one other MVP-winning season.
Baltimore had discovered a groove. The win marked the Ravens’ fourth straight, strengthening their case as a Super Bowl contender.
As Jackson roamed the sideline, one thing within the crowd piqued his curiosity.
Hours earlier, Ravens tools supervisor Jordan Brown had been approached by Gordon Cartnail, a Ravens fan, with a customized rug for Jackson. Handmade utilizing acrylic yarn, it depicted Jackson in a throwing movement. Cartnail made it with the intention of giving it to the Ravens quarterback at a recreation and instructed Brown about it.
“He’s my favourite participant within the NFL. Favorite athlete of all time, mainly,” Cartnail instructed ESPN.
Brown grabbed Jackson and identified Cartnail, who stood grinning ear to ear within the stands whereas proudly boasting the rug. Brown defined that Cartnail was going to present it to him, however earlier than Brown might end his sentence, Jackson interrupted.
“I need that,” he mentioned. “Tell his ass. I need that rattling carpet.”
And Jackson received that rattling carpet. Brown grabbed it for the two-time MVP, who discovered Cartnail after the sport, dapped him up, signed his jersey and thanked him.
NFL Films posted the complete sideline change of Jackson recognizing the rug and it rapidly went viral on social media. The jubilation within the quarterback’s response is strictly why Cartnail knits.
The Houston Texans flew Cartnail out to NRG Stadium to ship a rug for C.J. Stroud, who stopped in his tracks to acknowledge the work.
“The Texans DMed me on Instagram from the precise Texans web page themselves,” he recalled. “They mentioned they wished to do C.J., so I despatched them a few concepts. We agreed on a photograph, after which I made the rug. They flew me out, I met them on the recreation, talked to them on the sideline, and yeah — it was simply fully loopy. That was my first time ever being on a airplane and all the things. It was wonderful.”
Houston flew Cartnail out on his birthday to ship the rug throughout its wild-card recreation towards the Cleveland Browns final season.
In all of his collaborations, Cartnail’s mission has remained fixed: spreading positivity and honoring athletes’ accomplishments in a novel type.
“If there’s something that I might do to convey any individual some happiness, put a smile on their face, no matter it’s that I might do to convey some sort of positivity on this world amongst all of the negativity, I’m most positively keen to do this,” Cartnail mentioned.
The rugs function a option to solidify “all the things they’ve achieved in a second.” Whether it is the throwing motions of Jackson or Stroud, his intent stays clear.
Cartnail described the work as “one-of-one” as a result of the rugs are handmade. A rug he made for Ravens operating again Derrick Henry took him 36 hours.
The operating again’s response to it gained traction, just like Jackson’s. Ravens linebacker Marlon Humphrey has one ready for him additionally.
The NBA reached out to Cartnail a few rug for Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James throughout the Las Vegas summer time league. ESPN contacted Cartnail for a bit earlier than the Army-Navy recreation in 2023 that was displayed on the set of “College GameDay.” Carmelo Anthony reached out for one too — although Cartnail did not point out if one thing got here to fruition.
But irrespective of who receives his customized rugs, Cartnail yearns for a similar aim.
“I simply wish to put smiles and produce smiles on folks’s faces by way of the artwork that I make,” he mentioned.
Referred to as “112rugs” — impressed by his birthday, Jan. 12 — he is identified throughout the Ravens group as “the rug man.” As a die-hard Ravens fan, nearly all of his rugs have been Baltimore-centric, however Cartnail is not opposed to creating a rug for a rival.
“Business is enterprise, on the finish of the day,” he mentioned.
He stayed true to his phrase when he delivered one to Pittsburgh Steelers huge receiver Quez Watkins this season.
Cartnail, a Baltimore native, is at the moment a graduate scholar at Stevenson University in Maryland. He’s finding out legal investigations with the hope of becoming a member of a police academy then finally the FBI. It’s a far cry from the tufting and acrylic yarn he offers with on the aspect.
“It appears like I’m sort of right here, there, in every single place,” he mentioned. “But it is like wherever God calls me, that is the place I’ll go.”
His training was the spark that influenced his rug-making journey. While in class, he started contemplating enterprise concepts and stumbled upon a YouTube video of somebody creating customized rugs. Intrigued, Cartnail used a university refund examine to purchase provides and taught himself methods to knit by watching social media movies.
When the supplies arrived in March 2023, Cartnail — who had no prior creative background — threw himself into studying.
The fundamentals proved to be a right away situation. Tufting wasn’t working, yarn stored snapping and quite a lot of rugs went within the trash.
But the challenges did not derail Cartnail’s imaginative and prescient.
After lengthy days of college and shifts at Home Depot, he got here dwelling and labored on a rug.
“It was a pair days the place I used to be like… ‘I sort of simply wish to throw this up and simply attempt one thing new,'” Cartnail mentioned. “But I simply sort of caught by way of with it.”
The trial and error section lasted each day for a month and a half. Eventually, he realized the craft.
A rug for Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman ended up being his first for knowledgeable athlete. Soon after, he collaborated with the Orioles on a rug of shortstop Gunnar Henderson.
From there, Cartnail’s enterprise entered a word-of-mouth section. While he labored to promote himself to potential purchasers and navigate the enterprise aspect of issues, he was equally centered on making certain the standard and authenticity of his work.
“I do not wish to simply promote folks crappy rugs,” he mentioned. “I wish to guarantee that if I make one thing, it is one thing that folks get pleasure from and it catches their eye.”
The consideration from Baltimore’s quarterback modified all the things.
Two weeks earlier than the viral change occurred, Cartnail bumped into Ravens huge receiver Zay Flowers at a fuel station. Cartnail instructed him about his work and Flowers requested one for his new home. Cartnail mentioned he would make one in change for Flowers spreading the phrase, which the huge receiver agreed to do.
The rugs for Flowers and Jackson had been made with the intention of giving them to every participant. But Cartnail could not predict the response to Jackson’s piece. He had no concept that NFL Films captured the second.
Cartnail revealed he was at his aunt’s viewing when a good friend knowledgeable him in regards to the Instagram submit going viral. After stepping outdoors to look at the video, he returned moments later, and what had been a somber day turned much less so.
His social media stopped working. His follower depend soared from 9,000 to 32,000 in hours. His dad and mom suggested him to soak it in and benefit from the second. He nonetheless has hundreds of unopened direct messages from that “surreal” day.
“I’m not saying I did not have something [before], however solely having perhaps one to 2 orders right here and there that I needed to battle for …'” Cartnail mentioned. “To hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of individuals simply flooding my DMs. It sort of was like an amazing feeling.”
Clientele began coming in and the enterprise grew. Cartnail lastly started promoting his rugs.
It has been a lot of the identical this NFL season, highlighted by an emotional second when he gifted a rug depicting her late son to the mom of former longtime Texans and Ravens huge receiver Jacoby Jones.
“That one was actually particular to me … Whatever it’s that I do, I at all times wished to do one thing that is particular in one thing and that may contact any individual extra than simply seeing a customized rug,” Cartnail mentioned.
