Yesterday former Vikings wide receiver and current NFL analyst Cris Carter made the comment that if the Cowboys made a playoff run it would be a disgrace.
While on ESPN radio, Carter made the following quote:
"I mean, it's a discredit to all the things that we sacrifice when we put together a football team. I would be surprised. If you can do that, I would be shocked. I've been around the league a long time. I'd be shocked. Because the NFL, part of the story is talent. There are other stories, and they do have the talent thing, but they also have the dysfunction thing down pat, too."
Unfortunately, Carter seems to have forgotten his own history, where he and teammate Randy Moss repeatedly tossed quarterback Daunte Culpepper under the bus when things didn't go their way.
Carter sounds like the "team" guy now, but he hasn't played in years.
One year, specifically, catches my eye.
September 21, 2001. Vikings vs. Bears. Minnesota loses their opening game. They then lose in Chicago and start the season 0-2. Carter blows up on the sidelines, caught on camera and played over and over on national sports shows (sound familiar, anyone?).
Does anyone also recall the comments that Moss made about not playing all out all of the time? He took a lot of heat for that.
Yet Carter didn't agree. He told the papers that:
"I don't believe any player plays 100 percent all of the time. If you look at other people's occupation, are they doing the best they can every day? Of course not."
CNNSI's Don Banks even wrote about this at the time.
Carter needs to pull himself down from his high-and-mighty perch and spend a little time thinking about what he did when he was playing. While the Vikings finished 5-11 that year, I don't think Carter would have thought it a "disgrace to team unity" if they had pulled it together and made a playoff run.
You don't think it had anything to do with Terrell Owens passing him on the all-time touchdown list with his 131st against Baltimore, passing Carter at 130?
Nah, that can't be it ...