NFL Hall of Famer and current ESPN analyst Cris Carter had some interesting advice for incoming rookies at an official league seminar intended to prepare them for life as pros.
Among an NFL rookie's first order of business, Carter told an auditorium of first-year players, is to find "a fall guy" to take the legals hits when a player runs into trouble.
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Carter doled out his "fall guy" advice at the 2014 version of the league's annual NFL Rookie Symposium, intended in part to ready young players for the temptations and pitfalls of NFL life. Carter's comments -- delivered more than 12 months ago -- raised eyebrows around the web this weekend and soon had him tweeting an apology after a roundabout reveal that included an enterprising Twitter user digging up an old clip of his speech.
The story actually starts Friday, when ESPN investigative reporters Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada published a story detailing the journey of Chris Borland. Borland was young defensive star for the 49ers until earlier this year, when he decided to retire after just one NFL season because of concerns about the longterm effects of the repeated head trauma that's native to any violent sport.
Buried deep in the long profile was this anecdote Borland shared -- without mentioning Carter by name -- from the 2014 NFL Rookie Symposium he attended before his first and only season in the league.
"Get yourself a fall guy," Borland says one of the former players advised. The former player, whom Borland declined to name, told the rookies that if they ran into legal trouble, their designated fall guy would be there to take the blame and, if necessary, go to jail. "'We'll bail him out,'" Borland says the former player assured them.
Borland was appalled. "I was just sitting there thinking, 'Should I walk out? What am I supposed to do?' " he recalls. He says he didn't leave the room because he didn't want to cause a scene, but the incident stayed with him.
The anecdote didn't cause a huge kerfuffle until an otherwise little known Twitter user named Saad Yousuf found video showing Carter deliver the advice -- on the NFL's very own website, no less.
Yes, it was Cris Carter at the Rookie Symposium. Check it out, starts at 17:00 http://t.co/VqRghrx2or https://t.co/P7F97eji3T— Saad Yousuf (@126_saad) August 22, 2015
The video has since been removed from NFL.com, but a YouTube capture by Yousuf is embedded atop this post. In the clip, Carter stresses his point while pulling Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater from the audience to use as an example.
The symposium video of Carter telling rookies to have a "fall guy" comes at a delicate time for the NFL. The league has faced an avalanche of criticism over the past year regarding how accountable its players are held for off-the-field actions. Meanwhile, rising concern over the longterm effects of repeated concussions have many debating whether American football is even safe for humans to play -- Chris Borland's early retirement being a high-profile argument that NFL glory is not worth its physical toll.
After Carter's comments blew up Sunday, ESPN issued a corporate release distancing itself from his advice for rookies. Carter himself apologized via Twitter soon after.
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