Almost every media outlet seems to be on the Ray Lewis bandwagon. Countless headlines and photos glorifying the player before his final game. Shannon Sharpe did an interview with Lewis on CBS, in which Sharpe later made the statement that how far Lewis has come "is a testament to how this man has transformed his life."
Even after the game, in which Joe Flacco was named the MVP, commentators on sports channels across the board were hailing his praises. Warren Sapp described Lewis as a "leader of men." Marshall Faulk said that Lewis's "legacy and ability to lead men has put a new definition on leadership." In fact he said that in the future, "when people talk about leadership, they're going to tell you how Ray Lewis did it. That's how they're going to describe leadership."
This same commentator also told his viewers not to look into Ray's personal life, but to look at the body of work on the field. But when you think of a true leader — you know, someone who would "redefine leadership" — wouldn't they need to be a leader both on and off of the football field? Wouldn't they be honest and accept responsibility for their wrong doings?
Yes, they would. And this is why Pat does is not a Ray Lewis fan.
"I don't like people who have been involved in double murders and get away with it without telling what they know," Pat said this morning. "I like my linebackers not to have double murders in their background, whether they actually committed them or they just know who did it and don't tell. Either way, not big fans. Not a big fan of that."
Pat, of course, was referring to the double homicide in Atlanta in which Lewis was famously involved in, pleading guilty to obstruction of justice. No one was ever charged in the crime, and there are many unanswered questions surrounding the evidence in the case — like the families of the victims being paid off.
Yesterday, before the Super Bowl, in Lewis's interview with Shannon Sharpe, he gave an explanation to those accusations in which he all but admitted guilt to paying off the families.
"He answered that yesterday too, quite weirdly. Yeah, he paid off the family afterward. First of all, he's involved in this murder some way, we don't know how. He and two friends were there and then somehow two men were killed. Nobody apparently killed them because nobody's ever paid for the crime. The knives apparently jammed themselves into these men."
"So Ray Lewis knows what happened," Pat added. "Ray Lewis will not say what happened. But later he was charged with a misdemeanor of withholding evidence or obstructing justice or something. So then he paid off the families and yesterday Shannon Sharpe asked him about that in the interview pre Super Bowl and the thing he said there was, "I've paid off ‑‑ I've paid a lot of families, asked me about a lot of families. I give money to thousands of families." Okay. All right. So…"
Here's Lewis's exchange with Sharpe:
SHARP: A couple of weeks ago the family of the incident in 2000, and I'm paraphrasing, but it goes something like this. While Ray Lewis is being celebrated by millions, two men tragically and brutally died in Atlanta, Ray Lewis knows more than Ray Lewis ever shared. What would you like to say to the families?
LEWIS: It's simple. God has never made a mistake. That's just who he is. If our system, that's the sad thing about our system. If our system took the time to really investigate what happened 13 years ago maybe we would have got to the bottom line truth. But the saddest thing ever was that a man looked me in my face and told me, "We know you didn't do this. But you're going down for it anyway. To the family, if you knew, if you really knew the way God works, he don't use people who commits anything like that for his glory. No way. It's the total opposite.
There was at least one commentator last night that wasn't willing to play along with the narrative that this was Ray Lewis's personal Super Bowl.
Boomer Esiason wasn't having it. After the interview ran yesterday the CBS analyst responded by saying, "I'm not so sure that I buy the answer. It's a complex legacy that we're talking about," he continued. "[Lewis] was involved in a double murder, and I'm not so sure he gave us all the answers that we were looking for. He knows what went on there. And he can obviously come out and say it. But he doesn't want to say it. He paid off the families."
"Finally somebody said, you know, 'I'm sick and tired of Ray Lewis. This is not his personal Super Bowl.' And that's how everybody was acting," Pat said. Here's a guy who may have had a hand in murdering two men. We don't know because he won't say. And at least somebody's calling BS on some of this Ray Lewis worship."
Pat had more to say about this during Pat and Stu. Watch...