Eagles’ Jalen Carter reacts to ejection for spitting vs. Cowboys: ‘It won’t happen again’

Jalen Carter stood at his locker stall after the Eagles won their season opener without him and vowed to never let what happened Thursday night recur.

Arguably the best and most important player on the Eagles’ defense, Carter wore a shirt that read: “My first year being rich.”

Football will soon make him even richer. Carter is one of the game’s best interior defensive linemen and in line for an extension that will reach nine figures next offseason. But it’s incidents like what happened Thursday before the first play from scrimmage that mar his greatness as he enters his third NFL season at age 24.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jalen Carter has much at stake this season: ‘God put him on this earth to be a mean football player’

Carter was ejected from the game for spitting on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott after the opening kickoff and during a brief break while his injured Eagles teammate, Ben VanSumeren, was being tended to by the medical staff.

What started as a clear and obvious sending of saliva morphed into a Spitgate-style whodunnit after video emerged of Prescott spitting in Carter’s general direction before Carter approached him.

Prescott said Carter was messing with right guard Tyler Booker, and he felt the need to spit, something he does “a thousand times throughout the game.” He wasn’t spitting at Carter, Prescott said.

“I don’t try to do nothing out of the ordinary,” Carter said when asked if he felt Prescott provoked him. “If there’s something out there, y’all see it, and we’ll go with that.”

Head referee Shawn Smith told a pool reporter that “one of the officials observed [Carter] spitting on an opponent.

“It’s a disqualifiable foul in the game. It’s a non-football act.”

Carter was escorted off the field by Eagles chief security officer Dom DiSandro, and without him, the Eagles’ defense struggled out of the gate. They failed to apply enough pressure to Prescott, which meant their shaky and rebuilt secondary was forced to cover for extended stretches.

Jordan Davis was forced to play more snaps than he did all last season. He and Moro Ojomo were workhorses. The Eagles have six interior linemen on the active roster but only dressed five. One of them, Byron Young, was in on a forced fumble that helped the Eagles preserve their victory.

The defense bent plenty, but held strong in the second half, shutting the Cowboys out over the final 30 minutes of the game.

Still, it all would have been easier with Carter, who rarely came off the field last season as he emerged as one of the game’s best front-line defenders.

“He knows we needed him out there today and he wasn’t out there against a really good offense,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said.

“I want these guys to play with great energy, great tenacity, while doing it within the rules of the game. We’ll address that.”

Now, the Eagles will wait to see what happens next. It’s unclear if the NFL, which wants to cut down on taunting and unsportsmanlike actions, will discipline him beyond issuing a fine. Carter, when asked if he was worried if he’d be suspended, said it’s a conversation he’d deal with when it comes up.

“It was a mistake that happened,” he said. “It won’t happen again. I feel bad for just my teammates and the fans out there. I’m doing it for them.

“Not being able to start the game and finish the game, it [messed] me up. But it won’t happen again. I made that promise.”

Sirianni said he’d keep all disciplinary actions and conversations “in house.”

“I coach with emotion, and I want them to play with emotion,” he said. “But you have to do it within the rules of the game.”

Carter said he did his best to stay engaged with his position group. During halftime and the hourlong weather delay, he “told them what I was seeing watching the game inside.”

“It was intense for me,” he said. “I wanted to be out there with the guys so bad, just to support and help, even just standing on the sidelines. But things went how they went, and we just have to move on. I made a promise to them boys it won’t happen again.”

Jalen Hurts said he had a conversation with Carter after the game.

“I know what type of player he is,” Hurts said. “Everybody knows what type of player he is. It’s something we all can learn from.

“An unwise man will make a mistake and not look back and learn from it.”