A video went viral over the weekend showing Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter telling rookies at a 2014 NFL rookie symposium that they should utilize a “fall guy” when trouble arose.
A Chris Borland interview with ESPN, in which he referenced the speech but not the speaker, drew attention to Carter’s talk. Borland, who retired after one season with the San Francisco 49ers, cited the advice as something that, along with the hazards of the game, soured him on football.
The video showed Carter, dressed in his Hall of Fame jacket, standing on the stage with Hall of Famer Warren Sapp seated near him. He told the assembled rookies, “And just in case y’all gonna decide not to do the right thing, if y’all got a crew, you’ve got to have a fall guy in the crew. “
Sapp turned away, laughing.
Carter summoned Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to the stage, then continued to explain, “Now if they gonna keep rollin’, on Teddy’s bankroll, cause each of y’all in business for yourself, this right here is Teddy Bridgewater, Inc.”
Sapp intoned, “Incorporated.”
Carter continued, “That’s him. Now, every dime that come in to Teddy, all right, is gonna be earned by him in this body. All right Now I let my homeboys know. “Y’all wanna keep rollin’ like this, then I need to know who gonna be the fall guy, who gonna be drivin’, because you all not gonna all do the right stuff now, so I got to teach y’all how to get around all this stuff, too. If you goin’ to have a crew, one of them fools got to know he goin’ to jail. We’ll get him out.”
Sapp: “We’ll get him out.”
The NFL responded to the video with a statement: “This was an unfortunate and inappropriate comment made by Cris Carter during the 2014 NFC rookie symposium. 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.”
Carter apologized on Twitter Sunday:
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
The NFL has removed the video from its website.
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