DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cris Carter tells 2014 Rookies to get a fall guy

The link has the video. Link
NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter is under fire over a speech he and fellow Hall of Famer Warren Sapp gave at the NFL Rookie Symposium in 2014.

Video of Carter's speech surfaced after a recent ESPN the Magazine profile on ex-49ers linebacker Chris Borland.

In the interview, Borland mentioned an unnamed former player who told rookies to get "a fall guy" if they decided to run afoul of the law.

It didn't take long before someone found video posted online at NFL.com of Carter and Sapp giving a speech to rookies in 2014 where Carter passed along the message to the rookies.

"Just in case y'all not going to decide to do the right thing, if y'all got a crew, you got to have a 'fall guy' in the crew," Carter said.

The video has since been deleted from the NFL's website, although the clip of Carter doling out that specific piece of advice still exists on the Internet.



Carter's message also included the lesson on how "to get around" getting in trouble.

"I let my own boys know … y’all want to keep rolling like this," Carter says in the video. "Then I need to know who’s going to be the fall guy, who’s going to be driving. Y’all not going to do all the right stuff now. I got to teach y’all how to get around all this stuff."

It might be a realistic issue young men will face in the NFL, but the league -- clearly -- didn't like the message it provided. The NFL deleted the video and said in a statement that it was "an unfortunate and inappropriate comment."

“This was an unfortunate and inappropriate comment made by Cris Carter during the 2014 NFC rookie symposium," the NFL 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."

Next up: determining whether or not Carter will continue to speak to the rookies. And then whether or not someone at ESPN will apologize for Carter's comments (and to Carter for bringing his comments to light).And to think I respected Cris Carter for his play and his cleaning his life up.. Always liked listening to his take on things.... Not anymore

Next up, Ray Lewis talks to the kiddies on how to make a fall guy if you don't have one all ready.

I'm just speechless that he gave this advice.. Absolutely blowed away.. I really liked Cris Carter.. The cleaning his life up. Showed that no matter how low you get you can turn it around.. I just can't understand what he was thinking.

I was pretty stunned too ... not that he'd believe it/do it, but that he'd SAY it.

I'm not ignorant enough to understand how a lot of pro athletes/celebrities think/act ... but he's so blatant haha

Maybe he meant to say "designated driver".

What is there to say that hasn't already been said? Pretty shocking actually.

Cris Carter is an idiot, I never valued his opinion before this anyway.

designated driver/fall guy.... Sorry... Can't make that leap... That like calling Rape a one night stand!!

Another thing I find unbelievable is the NFL just removed this from their website saying they don't agree with the comments and that they told Carter this back when it happened, that it wasn't repeated at the 2014 AFC class or the 2015 class, but they posted it to begin with and only removed it when it was brought to light... Like I said with Cris Carter! What were they thinking?

I wonder if Cris Carter spoke to Josh Gordon about this. I was just thinking about Gordon's traffic bust where one of his buddies said that the weed found in the car was his, not Gordon's.

Wow, that's just crazy. (and not a good crazy)

I am sure that some of this is done anyway. Look at the guys who get caught with pot in their car and a "friend" tells the cops that it's his. I am quite certain that a lot of this type of arrangement is worked out in advance, just in case.

It is sad though. I wish that people could just live their lives with honor, but I suppose this is never going to happen with any consistency in this world. So instead, we get young, poor, kids, who suddenly find themselves quite wealthy, (even the rookies making "only" half a million or so) Bad decisions abound, and according to Carter, the best option is to make sure you can cover yoyr behind, instead of doing what you should. It is a shame.

It's unfortunate because I think CC really does like to help people.. but this was a HUGE mistake on his part.

I actually like Mike Golic's advice this morning on the rookie symposium... he said they shouldn't have CC standing up there in his gold jacket or the other speakers with their super bowl rings on.. what message does that send? The message that no matter how bad you screw up, you can always fix it and get into the HoF or win a ring?

His thought was that they should have guys like Ryan Leaf (who I believe is still in jail) or (and he didn't mention him by name) but a guy like Josh Gordon who had it all laid out in front of him to sign a mega deal and be set for life AND THEY BLEW IT.. and they never recovered... those guys who walk out to talk to the rookies and the rookies are like, "Who is that?" Well you've never heard of me because I SCREWED UP!!

I'd like to think he was trying to warn the guys to have a designated driver, a responsible friend to shadow the player in bathrooms and elevators to protect against fake female allegations, get a trusted financial adviser, end relationships with friends that may only be using you and put you in bad situation, and have a mentor to stay focused on the game...but that's not what he said or meant.

Too bad Chris, you sound like an asshat.

This guy isn't a real man at all. Real men take responsibility for their actions,not pawn it off on someone else. "Oh...that was his dope. Right Cedrick?" He's also full of crap,saying he's sorry on Twitter. Fact is,he's not sorry one bit or he would have said so a year ago when this happened. He's just sorry he got caught.

To be fair, CC has given this speech many times at different rookie symposiums since he retired and this is the only time this allegation has been made and they are all on tape... in fact they were playing a bunch of clips from them last night on "A Football Life"...

CC gets very into it when he's speaking, I think this one time it just got away from him.. I don't know what he was thinking, I'm not going to make excuses for him, but like I said, this is the only time out of many that he said anything like this...

NFL books Cris Carter and Warren Sapp to speak at Rookie Symposium in 2014.


That should be the headline.

I know they've had Maurice Clarett speak in the last year or two. I think Carter is coming from a good place, but just didn't think things through. His comments are the equivalent of buying your kid a car and then giving them tips on how to avoid getting a DUI when they drink and drive. It perpetuates the negative culture Carter spent a good portion of his life trying to shed. And why on Earth did they have Warren Sapp on that stage? The man never strung 3 years together without doing something stupid. He's never showed any indication of learning from his mistakes.

What's to be fair about? Is that your advice to youth..."Make sure you've got a fall guy to hold the dope!!" Of course it's not. For a man of his age to think like a 16yr old street punk,is embarrassing at best. He's a loser in my book.

That's unbelievable. Just damn wrong on so many levels.

WHY in the hell would the NFL let a guy give out that advice to rookies.

hey,, do what you want, just don't get caught or if you do, make sure you got someone in your "CREW" that will take the blame.

What kinda advice is that.

Once was ONE time to many.

Haha. Where was Sapp's fallout guy for those hookers? Haha Carter needs to teach him better.

No, but I have said things in front of my kids that I later realized I shouldn't have said for a variety of reasons. Maybe in a next life I won't make any mistakes, then I can be like you.... without the whole judgmental, self-righteous, arrogance part.

Either I forgot or never knew that Sapp had an issue with hookers....LOL

Considering this speech was shown first on NFL Network over a year ago and I think it was repeated a few times since I don't get the sudden media and public shock now, but whatever. I saw it on the NFL network and was thrown back when I heard Carter say those things but nothing ever came out of it back then and I had forgotten about it.

I haven't liked Carter since he became the go to guy when ESPN wanted to talk about Josh Gordon.. And "what the Browns should do"..

Because he said they should cut him?

CC is the biggest douche.

He was on M&M yammering about how professional football (and other sports) would exist and carry on without any fans.

Does anyone know what his relationship is with his son? Didn't his son screw up a lot and got kicked off the OSU team? I was curious about that the other day.

But, it's sound advice. Not what people want to hear, but it's not like he said anything wrong, besides encouraging their problematic and illegal behavior.

Fall guys are in place in major corporations and in the political arena.

The key is to not go around advertising such a practice.

This guy is still available

While that did annoy me..

It was the overall narrative he was painting..

"This worked for me, so they should do it, because it works"

As if getting cut by a team is the ONLY way for a player to turn his life around..

I feel like he was the voice that lead the charge in regards to the feeling that Gordon was some lost soul who's life was falling apart and was moments from destruction.. When in reality he's just a dumb kid who's made some mistakes..

The difference I see is Carter was saying what was best for the player. The Browns are doing what they feel is best for the Browns.

We all speak from our own experiences.. and Pit is right, CC was speaking only in terms of what was best for JG, not the Browns.. how many people on here have advocated spanking their kids because they were spanked and it seems to have worked for them?

As for your last comment, the Browns did it their way and he is now suspended again.. so while he may be just a dumb kid, he is really close to becoming a lost soul, at least in NFL standards.

The Browns are dumb, we all know that. However, Cris Carter's son got kicked off of like 4 teams? Yet, Cris Carter still has a pretty good relationship with Duron. I wonder why CC is such a gigantic hypocrite. I don't think many of us would have said anything if it wasn't for ESPN shoving this narrative down our throat.

So you're suggesting CC should have told his own kid, "you're not my son anymore"?

Maybe I'm missing your point....

His problems were academic... and I think he was only kicked off of 1 team, though he had academic issues everywhere he went.

But your job as a father is not the same as your job as an NFL team... I HOPE he still has a good relationship with his son...

In fact, CC has a very good relationship now with the guy who cut him....

I don't believe in burning down bridges with people. I'm just saying there's many ways to crack an egg. CC knows this. It's evident. He's used other methods. Yet, he strongly said that the Browns should cut him because he'll never learn. I really don't have a problem with what he said and I don't think anyone does, really. I think our problem, and why we're harping on it, is because of how forced the narrative was.