After releasing my first article about Ray Lewis officially joining ESPN today, I was quickly hit with the murder comments, referring to an incident involving Lewis and the death of two murder victims Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker.
A lot of people still view Ray Lewis as being associated or a willing participant of murder on that fatal night. Lewis pled guilty to misdemeanor obstruction of justice, but there are still people who question the legal system and the integrity of the two-time Super Bowl Champion.
Upon retiring from the NFL, ESPN knew those beliefs would need to be revisited before they could welcome the former Raven to their network.
“We discussed it,” ESPN senior coordinator producer Seth Markman told USA TODAY Sports. “When you hire somebody, you vet their background. We feel the situation was fully addressed by legal authorities at the time. Ray paid his debt to society.”
“We believe in second chances and so does the country. … It was a long time ago. This is a different guy.”
My stance on that incident as well as the ones of other players has always been the same. If we rely on our justice system to convict and decided the faith of those being guilty or innocent, you can’t scream foul when the outcome doesn’t go the way you see fit. No one, but Ray and the people with him knows what happened that night. Although we can speculate and draw our own conclusions, the system did not find him guilty of a double murder.
You can’t convict someone by assumption, so as hard as it may be for some people Ray Lewis is innocent of murder. Now if you want to call him guilty, you can reference your comment with guilty of obstruction of justice, but that’s about it.
“Lewis is ESPN’s “big NFL acquisition for the year. … He’s going to be fearless, like he was on the field. He’ll speak his mind without worrying on stepping on anybody’s toes.”
One thing Rev Ray has no problem doing is speaking. I guess it’s safe to say if anyone has an issue with Ray Lewis and his past being a part of ESPN, don’t count on him going anywhere any time soon. The NFL Network is just a channel away if it bothers you that bad.