NFL stars Dak Prescott and Jalen Carter will likely be expected to pay major fines after their now-viral spitting incident, according to former football player Isaac Rochell.
“Two NFL players spit on each other during a football game,” Rochell, 30, speculated in a Friday, September 5, TikTok video. “They’re gonna pay thousands of dollars for that.”
Prescott and Carter’s respective teams, the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles, kicked off the 2025-2026 NFL season on Thursday, September 5. At the beginning of the game, Prescott, 32, was seen spitting on Carter, 24, who reciprocated the gesture. (Prescott later denied spitting on Carter directly.)
“Now what? How does the team view it, [and] how does this affect Jalen Carter and his future?” Rochell, who retired from the NFL in 2024 after seven seasons, said. “Is this going to affect his contract next year? Absolutely. The team’s not gonna look at him and be, like, ‘Oh, he’s a character guy [and] we don’t want to pay him.’ He’s just playing one less game than he would have played.”
Rochell further theorized that Carter will “make less money” if he sits out even one game as a punishment.
“Even if he has the best year possible, he’s still technically played one less game that he was healthy,” he said. “Is he going to have to pay a fine for this? The answer is yes. … If you think that the organization’s gonna want to pay him the $60,000 they already owe him for that game? No.”
According to Rochell, Carter’s “base salary” per game will probably correspond to the size of the fine.
“The Eagles organization is [probably] not going to play him for spitting on somebody and sitting in the locker room,” he said. “He can get fined the max fine for conduct detriment, which is the game check.”
Carter was immediately ejected from the game after the spitting incident.
“One of the officials observed [Jalen] spitting on an opponent,” referee Shawn Smith told a reporter after the game, which the Eagles ultimately won 24-20. “It’s a disqualifiable foul in the game. It’s a non-football act.”
Prescott, meanwhile, said in a postgame press conference that he wasn’t trying to spit on Carter himself.
“I was just looking at [Jalen] and I was right here in between two linemen,” the Cowboys quarterback recalled. “I guess I needed to spit, and I wasn’t going to spit on my linemen, so I just spit ahead. At that point, I felt like he was insulting me. I wouldn’t spit on somebody and I’m damn sure not trying to spit on you, we’re trying to play a game.”
Carter has not publicly addressed the incident or his game ejection.
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