When looking for a NFL pundit to discuss the league’s current crisis regarding the criminal behavior of its players, you can do better than Ray Lewis. ESPN should realize that it’s probably not a very good idea to have a man indicted on murder and aggravated-assault charges in 2000 acting as the morality police on their Sunday morning NFL preview show.
Two weeks into the murder trial, Lewis’s attorneys negotiated a plea agreement with the District Attorney where the murder charges against Lewis were dismissed in exchange for his testimony against the other two men indicted for the capital crime, and plea bargain in which Lewis then plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice.
Ray Lewis then admitted he gave a misleading statement to police on the morning after the killings (initially telling them that he was not at the scene). Lewis was sentenced to one year probation and fined $250,000 by the NFL.
So let’s make it clear that Lewis was convicted of obstruction of justice in an actual court; before we move on to the court of public opinion. In this court, well it’s an absolutely crushing defeat for Ray Lewis and Bristol in general. It started last week on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown when Cris Carter took Lewis to task regarding his own sordid past, and Ray Lewis couldn’t gave a coherent, legitimate answer.
At this point, someone just needs to cut his microphone when the Ray Rice saga is brought up.
Here’s the Vine of the controversial soundbite:
An excerpt of the transcript, (full transcript, via SB Nation)
“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.”
And here’s the video of Ray Lewis with the full three and a half minutes on ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown.
Again Lewis is a free man, no court is charging him with anything. However, the world of media is the court of public opinion. And this is a really bad look for Bristol.
Obviously, the Ray Rice tape is what set this all off. And led to Ray Lewis making such an unfortunate verbal gaffe. And you should see the irony of Ray Rice at Super Bowl 47 Media Day now. Today this video is loaded with dark unintentional comedy now. Which led to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s joke of a press conference; which was shredded by the ESPN pundits; called out by FOX’s Troy Aikman, and completely lit up by HBO’s John Oliver.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partners with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN2