Two Years Ago Cris Carter Predicted Tom Brady Would Be Gone in Two Years. In an Ironic Twist, Cris Carter is Now Gone from Fox While Brady Remains
Source - 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. ...
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.
Well that is surprising news. At least it is to those who haven't been paying attention to Cris Carter's beef with his bosses over on-air playing time.
When this news first broke and #CrisCarter appeared on my Trending list, I thought there was some significance in the timing of this. Something about 2019 and no longer employed. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Fortunately that finger and the others can type into a search bar. And there I found my answer.
Cris Carter: Brady can't escape Father Time
"Father time. Father time is undefeated. Now Brady’s holding him off -- modern-day medicine, technology, all those things. But eventually Father Time is going to win. I believe five years is a little too far.
I believe he has two great years left in him. Now if he decides to play after that … he’s in that realm of players that regardless if they’re past their prime, we don’t mind watching. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he played four years, but I’ll give him two years at playing great.
Sometimes, as an athlete… you wake up in the morning - and I played until I was 37, I played 16 years in the NFL - you wake up and realize ‘you know something? I’m getting ready to start doing something else.’"
--Cris Carter, February 14, 2017
Interestingly, Carter not only stuck by that prediction after Brady threw for 505 yards in one Super Bowl and then won the next.
Now there's a better chance Colin Kaepernick will replace Carter on Fox - of all networks - than anyone will replace Tom Brady. You won't find that much irony in a book of O. Henry short stories or the entire "Twilight Zone" New Year's Marathon.
And believe me, I don't wish ill of the man. Just because he was one of the hundreds of millions who was quick to judgment on certain phony scandals involving Brady while denying that any other team ever bent a rule:
I'm just a fan of the paradox in this, is all. Sometimes as an athlete, you wake up in the morning at 37 and say "I'm ready to start doing something else." And sometimes at 42, you wake up and say "We're 8-1 and the No. 1 seed in our conference on the bye week." And other times, you're in your late 40s with a great gig in broadcasting, but you bitch to your bosses and they say "you know something? It's time for you to get ready to start doing something else."
And if you're parsing Carter's words and believing he's not wrong because he said Brady will only be "playing great" for two more years, here's what Brady is doing now:
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With constant turmoil and roster turnover at his wide receiver position and no real tight end to speak of, he leads the league in attempts. And is on a pace for:
4,509 Yards (the 7th most in his career), a 64.8 Completion %, 25 TDs, 10 INTs, a Passer Rating of 93.1 (his 11th highest ever) and QBR of 60.0, which is 11th in the league.
More to the point, he's still going. And still winning. Plus just added another trophy to mount on his wall of critics who said he'd never last but then he outlasted them. And the beautiful thing is that all these years, Brady has lasted and kept being successful, he's done it without needing a Fall Guy.