Just six seconds into the new NFL season, Jalen Carter was already on his way out.
The kickoff game in Philadelphia started with a real mouth-watering moment.
Carter left the defending champion Eagles hanging on Thursday night when he was ejected for spitting at Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, a saliva-driven dismissal from the field that became the latest addition to an infamous list of the ultimate displays of disrespect in sports. The Pro Bowl defensive tackle was tossed for unsportsmanlike conduct, part of the league’s push to crack down on taunting.
Carter, who could receive further discipline from the NFL, was contrite after the game in acknowledging regret and responsibility for his act. As Carter talked trash toward the Cowboys as they huddled before the first play from scrimmage, Prescott stepped forward and — as he recounted later — spit on the turf to clear his mouth and avoid hitting his own linemen. Carter, who was several yards away, took that as a slight and retaliated.
“It was a mistake that happened on my side. It won’t happen again,” Carter said. “I feel bad for just my teammates and fans out there.”
The expectations for expectorate etiquette are generally high in any organized society, with kids taught from young ages that spitting on or at others is simply not OK. Hence such strong reactions to seeing a person targeted by projectile saliva, let alone being on the receiving end.
Why, there’s even an entire episode of Seinfeld that aired in 1992 centering around spit, when mischievous oddballs Kramer and Newman chide friend Elaine for her new relationship with former New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez because they believed he once spit at them as they heckled him for a costly error after attending a game. Hernandez later revealed to them that teammate Roger McDowell was responsible.
Here’s a glance at some other memorable spitting incidents in sports:
Luis Suárez, soccer
During a postgame tussle following the testy Leagues Cup final won by the Seattle Sounders on Sunday, Inter Miami forward Luis Suárez spit toward a Sounders staff member and grabbed a Seattle player by the neck. Suárez has long been an international standout for Uruguay with a checkered pattern of behavior, including three separate bans for biting opponents over his career.
Suárez issued an apology on Thursday and was handed a six-match suspension.
Victor Hanescu, tennis
After being heckled throughout his third-round match at Wimbledon in 2010, Victor Hanescu lost his cool in the fifth set and spit at the taunting fans in the crowd. The Romanian was fined $15,000 by tournament officials.
Terrell Owens, football
Triggered by the constant trash talk from DeAngelo Hall during a game in 2006, mercurial Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens spit in the face of the Atlanta Falcons cornerback and was fined $35,000 by the NFL.
Bill Romanowski, football
After television replays clearly showed him spitting on San Francisco 49ers wide receiver J.J. Stokes during a Monday night game in 1997, fiery Denver Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski was fined $7,500 by the NFL.
“Sometimes when emotion is high, logic is low, and I did something that is totally unacceptable,” Romanowski said afterward.
The feud was rekindled when the two teams played three years later and Romanowski ripped Stokes for not fighting back after he spit on him.
Roberto Alomar, baseball
After being called out on a third strike in a game in 1996, Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar screamed at home plate umpire John Hirschbeck and spit in his face during the argument. Alomar received a five-game suspension. The two later made amends, as chronicled in a Pulitzer Prize-winning story by The Baltimore Sun, and Hirschbeck was one of the first people to congratulate Alomar for his election to the Hall of Fame.
Charles Barkley, basketball
The NBA suspended Philadelphia 76ers star Charles Barkley for one game and fined him $10,000 in 1991 after he lost his temper and spit at a heckler in a courtside seat, only to hit an 8-year-old girl who was sitting behind the man instead.