Former Vikings great and current ESPN analyst Cris Carter will finally get his day, when he’s inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
This week will be all about former teammates, opponents, and coaches alike, saying good things about Cris Carter as a player.
One former teammate is going off script.
Qadry Ismail played a few seasons with Carter after being drafted by the Vikings in 1993. Sunday, Ismail told SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio that “Cris Carter was a diva,” and “extremely selfish.”
“To be perfectly honest with you, Cris was a bonified diva,” Ismail told SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio. ”That dude would make, as far as his play, some outstanding one-handed grabs in practice to the point where when we got to the game we were just like, people would be like, ‘Oh, no!’ And we were like, ‘Yeah, and? Well, that’s just kind of Cris Carter.’ However, to me, when I say the greatest guy that I played with was Shannon Sharpe, because he raised the game up for me as a player. I know there would be times when we’d get in the huddle and he’d look over at me and go, ‘Q, we need to make a play.’ Or whatever it might have been in that moment. And I swear to you it would be like, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to make a play because Shannon just called me out.’ And sure enough, boom, it would be there. Shannon was that kind of a guy that you just knew that he was in your corner. You couldn’t say the same thing for Cris Carter. You couldn’t say the same thing as far as his attitude towards his teammates. You couldn’t say the same thing as far as his attitude as far as the coaching staff. You knew that he had a selfishness to him that was an extreme selfishness.”
The fact that Carter wanted his touches shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. Ismail made it seems as if that’s all Carter was concerned about.
“Could he flat out make catches? Absolutely. Could he flat out make plays? Absolutely. But there’s a reason why they didn’t go all the way and win Super Bowls,” Ismail said. ”There’s a reason why, that his talent was good, but when you talk about Jerry Rice talent you also talk about that team elevating it to the next level to win championships. When you talk about Shannon’s talent you are talking about that team elevating and winning championships. When you are talking about talent, there’s one thing to have talent but, to me, if you’re a complete, amazing football player, others around you rise up to whatever their level of talent is.”