NFL Hall of Famer and current NFL analyst Cris Carter has come under fire for statements he made at the NFL’s rookie symposium in 2014.
Carter suggested to the rookies that in the event they weren’t going to do the right thing at all times, it’s important to have a “fall guy” in the crew. That’s a friend who will be monetarily compensated to take a charge should anything go down.
“In case y’all not going to decide to do the right thing, if y’all got a crew, you’ve got to have a fall guy in the crew,” Carter said, as shown on the video.
“I let my homeboys know, y’all want to keep rolling like this, then I need to know who gonna be the fall guy, who’s going to be driving,” Carter said. “Y’all not going to all do the right stuff now. So I’ve got to teach you how to get around all this stuff, too. If you’re going to have a crew, one of them fools got to know he going to jail. We’ll get him out.”
Sapp repeated “We’ll get him out,” and chuckled.
“I know none of y’all going to never drink late, I know none of y’all going to never use no drugs or anything, all of y’all going to go to bible study,” Carter said in a sarcastic tone. “I realize that – but still get you a fall guy. If you’re going to have a crew, make sure they understand, can’t nothing happen to you. Your name can’t be in lights, under no circumstances. You all understand that?”
The video lived on the NFL’s site for more than a year before becoming an issue after a piece in ESPN the Magazine that featured a statement from former San Francisco 49ers’ linebacker Chris about Cris’ advice.
Both the NFL and ESPN disagree with Carter’s statements and released their own.
The NFL:
“This was an unfortunate and inappropriate comment made by Cris Carter during the 2014 NFC rookie symposium,” the NFL’s statement said. “The comment was not representative of the message of the symposium or any other league program. The league’s player engagement staff immediately expressed concern about the comment to Cris. The comment was not repeated in the 2014 AFC session or this year’s symposium.”
ESPN:
ESPN issued a statement, saying: “We completely disagree with Cris’s remarks and we have made that extremely clear to him. Those views were entirely his own and do not reflect our company’s point of view in any way.”
Carter also apologized on Twitter also:
Seeing that video has made me realize how wrong I was. I was brought there to educate young people and instead I gave them very…
— Cris Carter (@criscarter80) August 24, 2015
bad advice. Every person should take responsibility for his own actions. I’m sorry and I truly regret what I said that day.”
— Cris Carter (@criscarter80) August 24, 2015
Carter overcame a cocaine addiction during his playing days in the 90’s. His ability to overcome that circumstance and work his back makes him the perfect person to speak to NFL rookies about the pitfalls and tragedies that can occur as a professional athlete.The symposium is supposed to be a place for straight talk for the rookies. I actually agree with Carter to a degree, but understand why ESPN and the NFL want to distance themselves from those comments as corporate entities.
I actually give some similar advice in my book PostGame Pass: access into “the life” which is available now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
