Carragher blames ‘moment of madness’ for spitting incident
FORMER Liverpool star Jamie Carragher has been suspended as a Sky Sports analyst after he admitted spitting at a teenage girl in what he said was “a moment of madness”.
In a video of the incident, the 14-year-old’s father repeatedly taunted Carragher with the scoreline of Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool on Saturday as he drove alongside with his daughter in the passenger seat.
The former player is heard to say “All right”, before appearing to spit at the car.
Carragher has apologised to the family and stressed he would try to do so again in person but that has not prevented his employers dropping him from the ‘Monday Night Football’ show. Carragher has expressed regret both privately and publicly and admits he has no explanation for his actions.
“You can’t condone that behaviour. No matter what the circumstances, you cannot ever behave like that, it is just unacceptable,” he told Sky News. “Watching those clips back it feels like an out-of-body thing, that moment of madness for four or five seconds.
“I have no excuse and it is devastating for the family involved and my own family – but it is my actions which have brought that on.
“My biggest regret – there are lots at what has happened – but certainly the biggest one is for a 14-year-old girl to be caught in the middle of an altercation with her father.
“That has devastated me more than anything. This is a bad stain on my character and my career.”
Asked what kind of message it sent out, he added: “A poor message. Not just being in the game of football, it is a poor message for everyone out there.
“It is the lowest of the low. All I can do is apologise and try to get back to being the person I am.”
Carragher, who has not offered his resignation, became clearly emotional when speaking about his own teenage daughter while he made a case for being allowed to stay in his pundit’s job.
“There is no doubt what I have done is disgusting,” he said. “I apologise for it and am getting vilified – and rightly so. I am speaking to people at Sky and working at the best way forward.
“They have made it be known they are very disappointed and I understand. I have brought shame on the name of Sky. Hopefully, I can show people over these next days and weeks the real me and hopefully a moment of madness will not cloud their judgment. All I can do now is apologise. Hopefully they accept that and I’d like to apologise again.”