By WFAN.com
Boomer Esiason believes we haven't heard the last of Craig Carton.
Carton, Esiason's former WFAN morning co-host, was sentenced to 42 months in prison Friday for running a fraudulent ticket-resale business. Prosecutors said he spent $5.6 million of investor money on personal expenses, including gambling debts.
On Monday's "Boomer and Gio" show, Esiason said he believes "42 months was somewhat reasonable given the fact that he'll probably end up spending 85 percent of that time in jail and then probably some other time in a halfway house or something."
Esiason also said he believes that Carton will return to radio after he has served his time.
"He's just too talented not to be back," Esiason said.
"The four hours that he spent on this radio show, to him, was a four-hour stand-up comedy routine. And if you talk to any comedian, you talk to Gilbert Gottfried, anybody, they'll tell you the most important thing is to entertain and to engage the audience, and that's what he was doing.
"And when we left here every day there was never a cross word. There was never an angry moment. Because I totally understood what he was doing, and that's why he is so good at what he did because he was able to manufacture that every single day for four days, even in the midst of all the lunacy that was going on in his life (related to his gambling addiction)."
Carton's sentence also includes three years of probation, 150 hours of community service and $4.8 million in restitution.
"I would think that, because of Craig's unique ability, that somewhere along the line 3 1/2 years from now, somebody will give him an opportunity, and hopefully he'll get back to where he once was and he'll be able to make restiution that way," Esiason said.
"If not, my recommendation would be to sell his story and make a movie out of it. It's an amazing story when you think about it. We all kind of lived through it. I don't even know how the hell 17 months went by so fast."
