Early in his Professional Football Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Eller acknowledges how great his parents were in his life.

[4][5][6] In 1961 and 1962, Eller played tackle alongside future NFL great and fellow North Carolinian Bobby Bell, the 1962 Outland Trophy winner.

[7][8] As a sophomore, on January 1, 1962, Eller helped lead the Golden Gophers to a 21–3 Rose Bowl victory over UCLA.

[2][6][17] As the left defensive end in the Vikings front four, he was a major factor in the unit known as the "Purple People Eaters" (the other members being Alan Page, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen).

[20] The Vikings won the NFL Championship in 1969,[21] losing to the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV.

[32] He was voted the winner of the George Halas Trophy in 1971 as the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year as awarded by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA).

Beginning in 1984, following each football season, the Carl Eller Award is given to the University of Minnesota's Defensive Player of the Year.

[34] As a licensed drug and alcohol counselor, Eller founded a group of substance-abuse clinics in the Twin Cities called Triumph Life Centers in 1986.

[36] Eller was arrested in 2008 for fourth-degree assault of a police officer and second-degree refusal to submit to chemical testing, both gross misdemeanors.

In 2020, he joined the Halberd Corporation, a research-based publicly traded company that helps discover and develop medical treatments for diseases, as a consultant.