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Earlier today, we touched upon how rookies were advised to "have a fall guy" during their rookie orientation. Retired 49ers linebacker Chris Borland told ESPN how the sausage was made behind the scene.
Borland attended the annual rookie orientation put on by the NFL. The league tries to prepare young players for what to expect on and off the field, and it brought in two prominent retired players to give the rookies advice.
"Get yourself a fall guy," Borland says one of the former players advised. The former player, whom Borland declined to name, told the rookies that if they ran into legal trouble, their designated fall guy would be there to take the blame and, if necessary, go to jail. "'We'll bail him out,'" Borland says the former player assured them.
Well, it turns out that a video of this encounter exists (h/t BroBible) and the source is ESPN commentator and Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter.
In 2014, Carter and Warren Sapp hosted the talk with the rookies. Carter overcame alcohol and drug abuse on his path to the NFL Hall of Fame and he should be commended for his recovery. Sapp was arrested this past February for hiring a prostitute during the Super Bowl, which led to his dismissal from the NFL Network, and was charged with domestic violence for an altercation with his girlfriend in June.
Carter is seen on the video, starting at the 16:50 mark, saying the following at the 17:45 moment:
"Because all you guys aren't going to do the right stuff. I got to teach to you how to get around all of this stuff too. If you gon' have a crew, one of them fools need to know that they're going to jail. We'll get him out."
Cris Carter telling rookies to have a fall guy in their crew. https://t.co/htZNk3Pk9n
— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) August 23, 2015
Carter speaks for two minutes straight, including bringing Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater on the stage, about how every player will have a crew and how some person in the crew has to understand that their role will be to take the fall if the football player should ever get in trouble.
Wild. Absolutely wild that this is hosted in the NFL's own website.
Edit: And the icing on the cake? Chris Borland's interview was with ESPN, where he refrained from naming the person responsible for the advice, and ESPN refrained from searching or naming on their own. The person responsible was current ESPN employee Cris Carter.