Sunday, May 22, 2011

Ray Lewis, the NFL Lockout, and Crime

This article is just awesome. You have to wonder if the ESPN interviewer was baiting Ray Lewis into saying something stupid.

One of the consequences of a lost NFL season will be an increase in crime, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said in a wide-raging one-on-one interview with ESPN.

Police departments everywhere are gearing up for the increase in Sunday afternoon crimes from depressed Ravens fans with nothing to do.

"Do this research if we don't have a season -- watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up, if you take away our game," Lewis told ESPN's Sal Paolantonio.

1. "Do this research"?

2. "evil, which we call crime"?

3. "you take away our game"?

If there were a Hall of Fame for awesome quotes by athletes, this would be in it.

That's because, Lewis said, the NFL lockout affects "way more than us" -- the owners and the players.

It also affects people like this guy, who opened fire on a household appliance based on the outcome of an NFL game.

"There's too many people that live through us, people live through us," he said.

Perhaps it would actually be beneficial if people lived a little less vicariously through their NFL teams.

"Yeah, walk in the streets, the way I walk the streets, and I'm not talking about the people you see all the time."

I would like to discover just how, and when, Ray Lewis walks the streets, and I am absolutely baffled as to what kinds of people Ray Lewis IS talking about if he is not talking about people you see all the time.

Is he talking about reclusive shut-ins?

When asked why he thought crime would increase if the NFL doesn't play games this year, Lewis said: "There's nothing else to do Sal."

Life in the Ray Lewisverse:

Monday-Saturday: Await NFL Sunday.

Sunday: (a) Watch NFL football or (b) if (a) is not available, commit crimes.

Sunday is Day 68 of the lockout, which is now the longest work stoppage in NFL history. Lewis said the current dispute boils down to a matter of ego.

Coming from the man who once said:

I already believe I am the best linebacker in the game. Now, I have to show one more thing - that I am the most dominating, influential person in the game and the best football player to ever put on a pair of cleats.
I think it's safe to say that Ray Lewis knows a matter of ego when he sees one.

"It's simple, we really got to remove pride. Seriously," he said.

If only removing pride were so simple, all of our tragic heroes would never have met their downfall.

"There's no other reason the issue is going on," he said. "That's why I don't get into words and all that other stuff, because it takes away from life ... itself."

I'm glad Ray decided to get into words and all that other stuff, if only because it produced this hilarious article.

"There's people who are really struggling for real. There's real struggles out there."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

17 comments:

dan-bob said...

Also, if Ray's logic really holds true, does crime increase in the NFL offseason?

Anonymous said...

i thought maybe this was going to be about how ray lewis would be out murdering people if he didn't have his game to keep him occupied.

Anonymous said...

dan-bob, I once planned a crime during the NFL season and had to miss a week of games to pull it off.

Despite rigging a presidental election, Richie Witt wrote me a scathing letter about how real fans don't miss games to pull of crimes. Since then, I have planned all of my crimes during the Pro Bowl and off-season.

Angelo said...

too lazy to check the link, but I hope they actually referred to the interview as wide-raging

dan-bob said...

@anon1: I also suspect that crime will increase as a result of Ray Lewis not having a violent game to distract himself with.

@ anon2: You're a real fan.

@Angelo: yup, the original article does call the interview "wide-ranging".

Chris W said...

Ray Lewis murder jokes are slightly humorous and all, but they display a pretty fundamental ignorance as well

Jack M said...

Looks like Luke Scott and Ray Lewis are having a regular clash of the titans over which Baltimore pro-athlete can sound like the bigger fool in public. Of course, we can't yet rule out dark horses, Terrell Suggs, and Michael Phelps.

That being said, I'm sure that there's some study somewhere that probably suggests that crime might go down during major sporting events because criminals are busy watching. Of course, a jealous lover isn't going to put off murdering someone in a crime of passion because the Colts and Chargers are playing sunday night. That sort of restraint is reserved for a four game series between the Sawx and Yankees in late August.

@Chris W

Obviously the murder jokes are lame, but obstruction of justice zingers don't have the same zazz to them.

Chris W said...

And of course the obstruction charge was completely trumped up and not something any other citizen would have been prosecuted for. Go to bat for your home town boy, O'Jack

Jon P said...

I understand that Ray Lewis didn't murder anyone, but trumped up obstruction charge or not, he was involved in a fight that left people dead, and he admitted he made misleading statements to the police. I'm not sure someone who was involved in that should be making statements such as the one that is the subject of this article.

Chris W said...

Right, and all eyewitnesses accounts on both sides of the fight say that Lewis's role in the fight was as peacemaker.

Further, when he was "obstructing" he had no idea the fight was fatal. As soon as he knew he became fully cooperative.

As I said, ...reveal a certain ignorance of the facts

Tim N said...

Oh please, he's as guilty as those Duke lacrosse kids...


So he witnesses a fight that apparently stains his white suit with blood, jumps in his limo with his buddies (also bloody) and drives away to the sound of gunshots. And it's ok that he fails to tell the police about his friends being in the limo since he didn't know the fight was fatal?

Chris W said...

"Oh please, he's as guilty as those Duke lacrosse kids"

Yup. That about says it all. So in other words, like those Duke Lacrosse kids he's not guilty.

Also what's up with the "sound of gunshots"? What does that have to do with a fatal stabbing?

Are you like doing schtick or something here?

Tim N said...

Schtick - no, but a bit of sarcasm.

I was more interested though in it being acceptable to withhold information from the police as long as you believe the circumstances are not fatal.

And I like the quotes around "obstructing" - almost makes it seem like he didn't plead guilty to it.

Chris W said...

No one ever said it was "acceptable". It's just that he HAS been punished for that. Basically the accepted account is that he thought his buddies got in a fight at the club and told them not to talk to police. No one is going to say that's admirable, but that's a long way from what most people are accusing him of.

Also, I didn't put "obstructing" in quotations to suggest he didn't do it. I did it because "obstructing" isn't a word you use normally in a sentence and I meant to be using it as reference to the specific charge. Perhaps it wasn't the best choice, but I certainly don't believe he didn't do any "obstruction of justice". OTOH few people would have got hit as hard for an obstruction charge as he did. He kind of got a bum deal being a celebrity, assuming he didn't buy off all the witnesses or anything--that is to say, assuming the facts of the case are correct (which I have not reason to believe they're not).

Chris W said...

*no reason

Tim N said...

Thanks for the clarification.

It just seemed like you were coming down on people for making a joke. True, it's a pretty simple/lame joke, but if a guy who has been involved even marginally in a fairly serious crime makes a statement like Lewis did, I think it's an ok joke.

Would it have been more appropriate if Rae Carruth said it?Absolutely.

Chris W said...

It's not a terrible joke, and it's one I've made. But I think the major problem is that people mistakenly think that Ray Lewis actually "got away with something, up to and including murder. Which.... No.