Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter was ejected before the first play for spitting on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
Carter apologized to his teammates and the media, promising the mistake would not happen again.
Prescott explained the incident started when Carter was trying to intimidate a rookie teammate.
PHILADELPHIA – It was well past midnight when the victorious Philadelphia Eagles opened their locker room following a weather-delayed, choppy but certainly eventful 24-20 victory over the archrival Dallas Cowboys. Yet despite the late hour, it appeared like Pro Bowler Jalen Carter, perhaps the league’s next great defensive tackle – maybe even the guy who succeeds Aaron Donald as the preeminent player at the position – might have time to make one more mistake.
He didn’t.
As Carter’s locker in the bowels of Lincoln Financial Field stood empty, his linemate, little-known Moro Ojomo, stood in front of a throng of reporters answering questions about Carter’s ejection before the game’s first play of scrimmage, when he spit on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s jersey. But as Ojomo was speaking, Carter materialized next to him again and quietly dressed – and then, to his credit, addressed the media himself.
“It was a mistake that happened on my side, and it just won’t happen again. I feel bad, just for my teammates and the fans out there,” said Carter.
“It won’t happen again. I made that promise.”
It wouldn’t have come as a shock if Carter had left the stadium entirely, or at least ducked postgame questions about his behavior and punted those to another day. But it seemed like he did his best to make lemonade after he started the Eagles’ night on a sour note.
After watching the first-half telecast in the locker room, he relayed his tactical observations to teammates – that after apologizing to the defensive players and many of the ones on offense, according to left tackle Jordan Mailata, who characterized Carter as ‘remorseful.’
“Jalen is a part of us. We’re never gonna push our brother down,” said Ojomo. “He did something, and we all make mistakes.”
What exactly Carter did is something of a matter of conjecture. He clearly spit toward Prescott but refused to say if he felt like he was retaliating.
“I’ve got nothing to say about it,” said Carter, refusing to assign Prescott any blame but also not necessarily absolving him.
“Just trying to make sure the team’s straight.”
The Cowboys quarterback offered his own explanation, saying Carter was trying to get inside the head of Dallas rookie guard Tyler Booker ahead of the game’s first snap.
“(H)e was trolling, I guess you could say, trying to mess with Tyler Booker. I was just looking at him,” said Prescott. “I was right here by the two linemen, and I guess I needed to spit, and I wasn’t going to spit on my lineman and I just spit ahead. … And he goes, ‘Are you trying to spit on me?’
“At that point, I mean I felt like he was insulting me. I wouldn’t spit on somebody. ‘I’m damn sure I’m not trying to spit on you.’ We’re about to play a game. … ‘What would I need to spin on you for?’ He just spit on me in that moment, it was more of a surprise than anything.”
Suboptimal judgment has been a disturbing pattern with Carter, 24, whether it’s on-field conduct or his role in a street-racing incident that resulted in the deaths of two members of the University of Georgia football team two years ago.Viewed as a potential No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, that incident probably explains why Carter slipped to ninth, where the Eagles snatched him up and have subsequently benefited from his relentless play. Carter is a supremely effective interior disruptor who rarely misses a play … when he’s not missing all of them that is.
“(W)e need Jalen Carter on the field,” said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.
That’s especially true following an offseason when Philadelphia lost steady defensive end Brandon Graham to retirement. The team’s front was further raided by free agency, Milton Williams and Josh Sweat both leaving for greener, as it pertains to money, pastures after serving as key components to last year’s top-ranked defense. As the Eagles demand more from relatively inexperienced players, it’s imperative Carter is available to hold the line.
Said safety Reed Blankenship: “He’s got to learn from it and move on, and we have his back.”
It seems his mistake will become a point of emphasis for the entire team.
“I think, as a whole team, it’s just a matter of taking our discipline to another level and our focus to another level and then playing together and staying banded together and being able to control the things that we can control,” quarterback Jalen Hurts said after the game.
Hurts insisted his message was not meant to single out Carter, but he admitted talking to him one-on-one.
“I know what type of player he is, everybody knows what type of player he is,” said Hurts, “and it’s something that we all can learn from.”
And maybe Carter did.
He owned up to it immediately. He admitted being “super amped” in the first game of any sort he’d played since the Eagles won Super Bowl 59 in February. And, while it’s possible he could face a suspension, this incident occurred in Week 1, not the NFC championship game.
There’s no defense for spitting, but members of both teams agreed it was also a tightly called game at a time when the league is looking for better sportsmanship from its players.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Now it’s time for Carter to prove he won’t make a fool out of himself nor leave his teammates in a more serious lurch than he did Thursday.
“I wanted to be out there with the guys so bad, just to support and help,” he said. “I’ve made a promise to them boys that it won’t happen again.”
Let’s hope.