Cris Carter hasn’t been on the air at FS1 since last week, with reports surfacing that he was suspended from First Things First hosting duties pending a further investigation. Now it appears he’ll never be back, as according to a statement from Fox Sports Carter is no longer with the company.

Details are still limited, though according to this report from Front Office Sports reporter Michael McCarthy (who termed it a leave of absence rather than a suspension) the entire saga was sparked when Carter had it out with his Fox Sports bosses over his lack of participation in the network’s NFL coverage:

Despite being listed as an “NFL analyst” on his network bio, Carter has been missing in action on Fox’s Thursday Night Football coverage, as well as on the network’s top-rated Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, with Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Johnson, Michael Strahan, Howie Long and Curt Menefee. 

Rumors have bubbling since Friday about an alleged blow-up between Carter and his bosses at FS1.

“I was told it was bad,” said one source.

Carter’s Fox Sports bio has already been removed. Carter had been wtih Fox Sports since 2016.

[John Ourand, Front Office Sports]

UPDATE, sort of: The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand is reporting that the main reason is not directly related to Carter’s absence from Thursday Night Football:

https://twitter.com/AndrewMarchand/status/1192469471002275841

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.