That ESPN continues to let Ray Lewis chime in on how crimes get covered up in the NFL is ironic in a way that makes the World Wide Leader look tone deaf.
by Shimbo
Seriously, what is ESPN trying to prove?
As they have throughout the entire Ray Rice affair, the World Wide Leader continues to trot out former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis to give his unique perspective on the league as it pertains to how crime and punishment are dealt with.
And he should know.
Lewis escaped a murder charge of his own from a January 2000 fight Super Bowl weekend in Atlanta where two men were stabbed to death. Luckily for Ray, all charges were dismissed when he flipped on a couple of guys in his entourage. He ultimately pled guilty to a misdemeanor obstruction of justice charge, resulting from the disappearance of Lewis’ white suit worn that fateful evening that was alleged to be covered in the victim’s blood, thereby providing the evidence that would’ve likely sent him to prison for a long, long time.
After that life-altering incident, Lewis did what many in his position do, find Jesus and win Super Bowls, thereby making a villain into a hero of redemption. And that should’ve been enough, but when it comes to ESPN, never is rarely ever enough. Their decision to hire him as an NFL analyst keeps him in the public spotlight, but their decision to keep letting him talk about situations like Ray Rice’s flies in the face of common sense. Judge for yourself:
And here’s the transcript:
“Yeah, this is one of those situations that … It’s family. I spent 17 years of my career at this one place. I’ve known Ozzie Newsome now over 19 years of my career, of my life. That’s half my life. I’ve known Steve Bisciotti over 15 years of my life. Each one of those men, bottom line, has never lied to me once. They’ve given me an opportunity at life to change not only my life but my family’s life as well as my kids’ lives.
“If this incident, what we’re dealing with, if they could do this all over again, they would. If the NFL could do this all over again, they would. Whether they saw the tape or not, who really knows outside of the people who was actually there to know what went on? But sometimes I think we get lost in trying to figure out who’s head to go after, who to attack now about what they didn’t do.
“Sometimes we forget why we’re here. We’re here for one reason and one reason only. We’re here for domestic violence. We’re here because we saw a friend of mine brutally hit his wife in an elevator. There’s some things you can cover up and then there’s some things you can’t. Right now is a sad day for me because the reputation that I left in this organization, this isn’t it. This isn’t it. What was built that many of years took hard work to get that. Took a hell of a reputation to put on the line. Men’s families. Men’s lives. How to actually get acclimated as a pro.
“So yeah, am I little bit offended when you talk about a guy by the name of Ozzie Newsome? Absolutely, because he’s one of the five star generals in this world as a man. I don’t want us to lose fact. I don’t want us to lose what’s really going on here. Ray Rice put a lot of people in jeopardy with his actions. A lot of people in jeopardy. Not just himself. He needs to understand that because none of this happens if what happened that night in that elevator don’t happen… If I ask for anything in this whole thing, I ask let there be light.”
It’s almost as if Lewis forgot the last decade of his own life. Far be it for anyone to deny the man a chance to make a living after a life on the field, but given everything that defined a good part of his career, redemption or not, to allow him to even speak on the sorts of issues that his involvement only serves to make the NFL look like a bleaker institution than it already is.
Ray Lewis is absolutely entitled to his opinions, but ESPN has to ask itself whether or not it’s a good idea to have someone who likely committed double murder, while destroying evidence and later betraying his associates comment about other players committing crimes of their own.
Hashim R. Hathaway (Uncle Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet