Cris Carter’s run at FOX Sports has ended.
Via John Ourand of Sports Business Journal, FOX Sports has issued a statement confirming that Carter no longer is employed by the company.
The Hall of Fame receiver, who previously worked at ESPN before ESPN parted ways with him, had been with FOX since December 2016. He appeared on FS1’s First Things First since its inception in 2017.
Carter hadn’t appeared on the show since last Wednesday, and Ryan Glasspiegel of TheBigLead.com previously reported that FOX had suspended Carter. Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reported that Carter was upset with his omission from the FOX Sports Thursday night pregame show, which like First Things First originates in Manhattan.
The issue came to a head last week, and it’s possible that the last straw for Carter came from the decision to tap Reggie Bush to fill in for Terry Bradshaw last Thursday night. FOX also has been flying Tony Gonzalez from L.A. to New York for appearances on the Thursday pregame show, even though Carter could have done it with no travel expenses.
Carter made waves in 2015 when the notorious “fall guy” video first surfaced. At the 2014 NFL Rookie Symposium, an event which has since been discontinued, Carter advised rookies to ensure that their circle of friends includes one person who will assume responsibility for anything that the player may have done.
“If you all got a crew, you got to have a fall guy in the crew,” Carter said. “If you all have a crew, one of those fools got to know, he’s the one going to jail. We’ll get him out.”
ESPN thereafter got Carter out, and Carter by all appearances has now gotten himself out of FOX.