Jalen Carter ejected six seconds into the NFL season after spitting on Dak Prescott

Before Jalen Carter even played a snap in the NFL's Kickoff Game between his reigning champion Philadelphia Eagles and the rival Dallas Cowboys, he was sent off the field, ejected from the game. As it turns out, you can't just walk up to the Cowboys huddle and spit in the face of quarterback Dak Prescott — who'd have thought!

Carter is a dominant force on the interior and, after the pregame festivities for the Eagles and after the Cowboys took the opening kickoff out, Carter walked up to the huddle and Prescott emerged. The two stars were clearly jawing at one another, but then Carter took it too far with the spit right in the quarterback's face, immediately in front of the referee, no less.

This is definitely the first time I've seen something like this done so blatantly. And it made Carter's season debut last a total of six seconds before he was ejected.

Yes, it sounds silly to say that an NFL player was ejected six seconds into the season, but Eagles fans have nothing they can be mad about. There's no world in which you can be senseless enough to do something like that, much less before you even play a snap.

Eagles lose Jalen Carter six seconds into season after ejection for spitting

Not only did the Eagles lose Carter before they played a defensive snap, the Cowboys got a free 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct to accompany the ejection. That set them up with tremendous field position on their own 47-yard line to begin the game and their first offensive series.

Prescott and the Cowboys quickly knifed their way through the Eagles defense for a six-play touchdown drive to star the game. Punctuating it was a one-yard touchdown run right up the middle by newcomer Javonte Williams. You have to imagine that score might've been a little bit harder to come by if the Eagles had Carter in the middle of the trenches to clog up the running lanes... just maybe.

That's just a brutal way for the Eagles to start their Super Bowl defense, though. The simple fact of the matter is that Carter completely lost his head, for whatever reason, in that moment. This isn't like it's his first NFL snap and he's caught up in the emotion of the season opener. Carter is now a veteran and one of the core pieces of this Eagles defense. For him to immediately cost his team by doing something so mindless is unacceptable.

Philadelphia, obviously, paid for it on their opening drive and were immediately put behind the 8-ball with the early Cowboys touchdown. They also have to go at it with their biggest rival without Carter on the field for the rest of the game.

Will Jalen Carter get suspended for spitting on Dak Prescott?

While Carter was effectively suspended for all but six seconds of the season opener, NFL history tells us that the ejections is as far as the consequences will go in terms of missed time.

Back in 2006, former Eagle and Cowboy Terrell Owens, then a member of Dallas, spat on former Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall. In the aftermath, the NFL chose not to suspend the wide receiver, but did fine him $35,000 for the incident. Moreover, then-Ravens cornerback Marcus Peters was fined $12,500 and not suspended in 2020 for spitting at Jarvis Landry.

So based on the precedent, that's likely the type of punishment from the league that Carter is facing. Having said that, you never know how the league will react based on each individual incident. And the fact that this happened with Carter essentially outside of playing the game and not even really in the heat of battle, that could be a factor in any decision made about repercussions.