After the Georgia football team won their second straight national championship, many players and team staffers celebrated when they returned back to Athens, Georgia. One of those players was Jalen Carter, who is now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles after being drafted in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft. After a night of celebrating, Carter was racing another car filled with teammates and staffers, and that car crashed, killing two people. One of the Georgia staffers injured in the incident has filed a lawsuit against Carter and the school, and Carter and his attorneys recently responded to it.

“I think there has been a massive PR campaign supporting these two lawsuits to the detriment of the UGA Athletic Association and Jalen Carter and others named in the case without them having the chance to explain themselves,” Jalen Carter's attorney Bill Cowsert said, according to an article from The Athens Banner-Herald. “Jalen Carter is not to blame for this accident at all although he is heartbroken for his friends and athletic employees that were killed or injured in this tragic collision.”

While Carter was involved in the incident, he believes that caution could've been taken by others to avoid the situation.

Carter contends through his attorney that the Georgia staffer “failed to exercise ordinary care for her own safety when she voluntarily assumed the risk of harm by riding in an automobile being driven by an obviously impaired and intoxicated driver… whose negligence was the proximate cause of the subject wreck.”

One claim in the incident is that Carter unlawfully left the scene of the crash, but Carter denies that. Carter apparently left the scene “when it was apparent that there was nothing he could do to help and that his presence was not required at the scene.”

It was also made clear by Carter and his attorneys that he had not discussed racing with the other driver that was involved in the incident.

This tragic incident was heartbreaking for the entire Georgia football community, and there is sure to be more updates on this lawsuit in the future.