The NFL sure made us wait on a ruling for Jalen Carter’s Week 1 spitting fiasco. Just seconds into the season opener between the Eagles and Cowboys, Carter launched a loogie toward Dak Prescott’s face area, getting himself ejected before a single snap was played. Then came all sorts of guesses about the defensive tackle’s punishment from the media, but PFT’s Mike Florio got it spot on.
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On Monday, when the league didn’t hand down a suspension, Florio wrote for NBC Sports that the punishment of such was probably off the table. His reasoning was simply that there wouldn’t be enough time for Carter to go through the appeal process before Week 2’s Super Bowl LIX rematch in Kansas City. Florio also predicted Carter would get hit with a $57,222 fine. And he was right again.
On the latest episode of Pro Football Talk, Florio doubled down on those points. He even added that with how long the decision dragged out, it would’ve been too late for the Chiefs to prep their offense for a Carter-less D-line… or for the Eagles to adjust their own game plan without him.
“I think, Tuesday, 5 o’clock, if you’re on the roster, you get paid for that week,” the analyst added.
So, all the signs pointed to a Game 2 (or longer) suspension being off the table. But the league still suspended Carter, which he basically served in Week 1 by getting tossed before even playing a snap.
And he was fined the exact amount he would have earned that week ($57,222), which Florio calculated by dividing his total salary by 18, since the league also counts the bye week. Still, as Florio pointed out, this was not a straightforward or absolute suspension, and it came with a giant asterisk.
“The end result: Jalen Carter is suspended with a giant asterisk. But he’s getting credit for time served, because he was ejected before a single snap in the Thursday Night Opener,” Florio continued.
“And we get to where I thought this was always gonna be, from the moment I did the research and found the precedent, longstanding for spitting on an opponent is a fine and maybe an ejection if they see it at the time. No one has been suspended for that. Good luck making a suspension stick.”
NBC Sports’ Myles Simmons, who was guesting on Florio’s show, raised a valid question after Florio’s comments: What happens if someone spits on an opponent again, but this time in the middle of a game or after snaps have already been played?
Would the Carter case set a precedent that leads to a one-game suspension the following week? For now, no one really knows. We’ll just have to wait and see.
