Cris Carter Advises NFL Rookies To Have A 'Fall Guy,' Apologizes
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Cris Carter says he regrets advising NFL rookies to have a "fall guy" -- someone prepared to do time for their potential crimes.
The 49-year-old Hall of Famer issued an apology Sunday on Twitter amid fallout from his appearance at last year's rookie symposium.
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
In a statement, the NFL called the remarks "unfortunate and inappropriate." Video of the 2014 NFC session, which included troubled Hall of Famer Warren Sapp, was deleted from the league's website.
"The comment was not representative of the message of the symposium or any other league program," the NFL said. "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 also issued a statement on Carter, who works as an NFL analyst on the network.
"We completely disagree with Cris's remarks and we have made that extremely clear to him," ESPN said. "Those views were entirely his own and do not reflect our company's point of view in any way."
Carter's comments came to light after an ESPN the Magazine profile on Chris Borland, who retired after his rookie year with San Francisco citing long-term health concerns. In the issue, Borland said he was taken aback by the advice on avoiding legal trouble. He declined to name the speaker.
"If y'all got a crew, you've got to have a fall guy in the crew," Carter, in his Hall of Fame jacket, told the players. "I let my homeboys know, y'all want to keep rolling like this? Then I need to know who's gonna be the fall guy, who's gonna be driving. Because 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's going to jail. We'll get him out. ... If you're going to have a crew, make sure you know who's gonna be the fall guy. OK? ... 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. Alright? You all understand that?"
Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason tried to make sense of the situation Monday on his WFAN morning show.
"The only way that I can think about why this happened the way it did is because of the environment that these guys were in," Esiason said. "So they're in a room with a bunch of young guys, and they're trying to remain relevant, I guess."