Marcus Trufant says Cris Carter’s ‘fall guy’ advice not far off

The delivery might have been wrong, but former Seahawk Marcus Trufant said Cris Carter’s “fall guy” advice wasn’t that far from the truth.

On KIRO Radio’s Tom & Curley Show, Trufant, a Pro Bowl cornerback for the Seahawks who retired in 2014, said Carter’s controversial statement that football players should have someone ready to take the blame when something goes wrong is “understood.”

“There’s not a whole lot wrong with this statement, but the delivery is a little off,” he said “…I think there’s an unwritten rule that your gaggle of guys need to look out for the guy who’s going to be on SportsCenter if everybody gets in trouble.”

A video of from the 2014 NFL Rookie Symposium shows Carter, a Hall of Fame wide receiver and ESPN personality, telling young players to have a “fall guy in your crew” when there’s potential trouble with the law. The video came to focus after a recent ESPN The Magazine story on former San Francisco 49ers Chris Borland, who retold the story but declined to identify who gave the advice. Video of the symposium was archived on NFL.com. Fellow Hall of Famer Warren Sapp followed Carter’s statement with, “We’ll get him out.”

The video was later removed from the site. Both ESPN and the NFL have condemned the statement. Carter apologized for the comments on Monday Night Countdown.

Trufant said Carter seemed to be talking about the potential situation in a humorous way and worded it like he would in the locker room, rather than on TV.

“Don’t call him the fall guy, just say there needs to be a plan if things go bad,” Trufant said.

When Curley asked for Trufant’s reaction if he were to be pulled over in a car with the hosts.

“I’m about to play sleep, y’all,” he said. “Tom, I need you to jump in the driver’s seat.”