ESPN opened tonight’s edition of Monday Night Countdown with an apology from analyst Cris Carter over his comments from the 2014 rookie symposium that came to light over the weekend.
Carter, who said at the symposium that young players should have a “fall guy” to take the blame if they’re ever in trouble with the law, said tonight that he regrets what he said.
“It’s really hard to go through my thought process,” Carter said. “I can’t make an excuse for what my mindset was. My heart was in the right place. I didn’t use words that I was very proud of. It’s not the kind of advice I would offer young people. I would never tell young people to break the law or avoid prosecution. It was bad advice. I really, really regret my words when I heard them come back to me. And more importantly it hurt young people and it hurt them in their approach to the National Football League. So I take it very, very seriously. I do regret that day. I hope moving forward that the NFL still has enough trust in me and has me connected to their young people.”
Carter vowed not to let anything like that happen again.
“I hope I learn from it and I hope it makes me better and I hope my reaction in the next situation is better,” Carter said.
ESPN and the NFL have distanced themselves from Carter’s comments, but ESPN did not suspend Carter. He remains on the air, sounding chastened.
