What happened in the first six seconds
Six seconds into the 2025 NFL season, the defending champions lost their All-Pro defensive tackle. Philadelphia Eagles lineman Jalen Carter was ejected from Thursday night’s opener at Lincoln Financial Field for spitting on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, turning a banner-raising celebration into instant controversy.
The flag flew before Philadelphia’s defense even lined up for a snap. After the opening kickoff and amid a loud pregame ceremony honoring last season’s Super Bowl title, Carter walked toward the Cowboys’ huddle. Prescott, standing near two offensive linemen, spat forward onto the turf. Carter then spit directly on the quarterback. Officials who saw the exchange immediately hit Carter with unsportsmanlike conduct and disqualified him.
Television replays showed the sequence that set it off: Prescott’s spit landed on the ground, not on an opposing player. Carter’s response was aimed at Prescott, and that was enough for the crew to eject him on the spot. Boos poured down as Carter headed to the tunnel. The clock had barely started.
Prescott tried to cool things off afterward. He told reporters he had been trying to mess with a lineman and felt the need to spit, but didn’t want to hit a teammate, so he spat ahead of him. That set Carter off. The Cowboys quarterback didn’t call for further punishment and framed the moment as a misunderstanding that escalated fast.
Carter owned his part of it and apologized in the locker room. He called it a mistake, said it wouldn’t happen again, and expressed regret to teammates and fans. For a 24-year-old centerpiece of the Eagles’ front, the timing was brutal—opening night, prime time, and a rivalry game.
Philadelphia’s front office had spent the summer praising Carter’s dominance. General manager Howie Roseman recently said that when protections slide his way, it opens lanes for everyone else up front. That’s the ripple effect the Eagles lost within seconds. With Carter gone, the defense had to reshuffle its interior rotation right away and lean on depth packages they didn’t plan to use this early.
What the rules say and what happens next
NFL rules treat spitting on an opponent as unsportsmanlike conduct, and officials can eject a player on the spot. It’s the kind of zero-tolerance behavior the league has tried to make clear over the years: taunting is a penalty; spitting can be a disqualifying act. The officiating crew didn’t huddle long—what they saw met the threshold, and they enforced it immediately.
The league office now takes over. Every ejection is reviewed, and spitting incidents usually draw more than a warning. Additional discipline can include fines and, in some cases, a suspension. Those decisions typically come after the game is graded and the video is reviewed at Park Avenue, often with announcements in the days that follow a prime-time opener. As of the final whistle, there was no formal word on whether Carter will face anything beyond the ejection.
Beyond punishment, the football impact is real. Carter isn’t just a pass-rush threat; he changes how offenses call protections. Dallas could devote fewer double-teams at the snap, which alters route timing and run fits in subtle ways that add up over four quarters. For Philadelphia, losing him that early meant reworking third-down groupings, leaning on different stunts, and asking other tackles to eat snaps they weren’t slated to absorb in Week 1.
Emotion runs hot on ring nights, and Eagles-Cowboys runs hot on any night. This rivalry has a way of testing a player’s composure. Coaches preach the same line every week—don’t take the bait, don’t hurt the team—but that message is hardest to follow when the stadium is shaking and the game plan hasn’t even started. One small act flipped the script on opening night.
Inside the locker room, the tone was contrite on one side and measured on the other. Carter said he promised teammates and fans it would not happen again. Prescott downplayed intent on his part, made clear he didn’t want to spit on anyone, and moved on. No one tried to argue the rule. What’s left now is the league’s review and whatever message it decides to send in Week 1 about conduct after the whistle—and, in this case, before the first snap.
Philadelphia has built its identity on a wave of defensive linemen rotating in fresh. When one of the anchors disappears, even for a night, it changes how the entire unit plays. If the league adds discipline, the Eagles will need to stretch that depth early in the schedule. If not, they’ll still be processing how one of their best players left the field before he could play a single defensive down on the franchise’s biggest celebration night.
The angles will be replayed over and over because they show a clean timeline: a spit to the turf from Prescott, an escalated response from Carter, officials stepping in right away. It took seconds to happen and could take days to unwind. Rivalry games don’t need fuel, but this one got it before the season’s first snap.