I was lucky
enough to the go to the Super Bowl this past weekend. It was everything I was
hoping it would be and more. I hopped on the plane Friday morning with my
godmother Nancy and rolled into New Orleans almost as excited as Ray Lewis was
for the game (Just Kidding). I went in to the weekend committed to rooting for
the Ravens over the 49ers, and a huge fan of the before mentioned linebacker
Ray Lewis.
Lewis started his career in 1996 and played
his last game this past Sunday. He is regarded by many to be within a group of
the best linebackers to ever lace em’ up. He is also one of only two
linebackers to ever be rewarded Super Bowl MVP. And no, 1996 isn’t a typo, he
has been doing the damn thing for 17 years. The Baltimore Ravens have never
existed without Ray Lewis on the roster. Even the people that think he is a tad
overrated as a linebacker admit that he is the best motivator to ever have pads
on. He revolutionized the pump-up speech. To top it off, he does endless
charity work and is extremely religious.
As those
who dislike the Ravens are quick to point out, his career does have a strange
blemish. In 2000, after a Super Bowl party in Atlanta there was a brawl that
resulted in two men being stabbed to death. Lewis was held for 15 days on
charges of murder and then made a plea deal with the prosecutors. He was only
charged with obstruction of justice in exchange for testifying against the two
people he was with. His two friends were acquitted and no other suspects were
ever arrested for the crime. Nobody knows for sure who is innocent and who is
guilty, and now it seems that we never will.
My grandpa
was a sports reporter on ESPN back in the day so I got to go behind the scenes
at ESPN to see the taping of a show on Saturday. In the process I got to meet
sports reporters, sports writers, and just plain sport lovers like Adam
Schefter, ESPN’s NFL Insider, and Mike Lupica, the author of books like “Travel
Team” and “Heat” which almost every 12 year old guy read at least a chapter of
back in the middle school years. So there I was, a huge football and Ray-Ray
fan chilling in a room watching Lupica and Schefter toss on make up. The
executive producer ran through what was going to be talked about on the show,
and Ray Lewis and the murders came up. Mike Lupica seemed passionate on the
subject and showed it on air, saying how it says something about the attention
span of the sports world and what we care about.
To me, it
caused a temporary epiphany. It made me realize that the whole playoffs this
year I (at age 17) had been watching a man playing his 17th season
and thinking of nothing but his sheer awesomeness. It did not have the epiphany
that he was definitely guilty of something related to the murders that took
place 13 years ago, but I had the epiphany that I had spent a long time not
caring about the murders at all. I realized that Ray Lewis’s story was not a
case of media forgiveness and athlete repent. Michael Vick’s crimes were forgiven.
Ray Lewis’s alleged crimes, albeit alleged, were forgotten.
Just a day
later after the Raven’s victory Ray Lewis was standing on the podium holding
the Lombardi trophy yelling “Baltimore!” into a microphone. And I sat in my
seat with chills. Chills. Chills of inspiration and amazement. I was not alone,
I turned on ESPN later that night and heard analyst Tom Jackson say “What a
ride for Ray Lewis, this is one of the best things ever.” One of the best
things EVER. And I sat back on my hotel room bed and thought about Mike Lupica
and thought again about how disgustingly little I cared about the murders that
Ray Lewis were involved with. The media, the Ravens, and the NFL had all moved
on and revered Lewis as a hero, and I followed right behind them and did the
same and will forever. As quickly as stories were published about Ray Lewis as
a villain in 2000 they were published just as fast in 2001 about Ray Lewis the hero.
So I ask you, sports fans, do we care about what’s right and wrong? Or will we
write, read, and watch whatever makes the best story? There will forever be an
unsolved murder involving Ray Lewis, but when big Ray throws on his Hall of
Fame jacket and gives a moving acceptance speech nobody in the room will care.
But hey, at least he swears he isn’t hiding anything the same way Lance
Armstrong swears he didn’t cheat, so maybe they both really are falsely
accused… Oh wait nevermind.
Go cheer for Wave Puck tonight. Till next Wednesday, it’s
been really real.
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