The man who told us in 2011 that we would be living in a post-apocalyptic society of violence without an NFL season has decided to not continue his NFL career.
That’s right, after 17 seasons, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis is retiring.
And so now begins the piecing together of his “legacy”, if you are into such things.
A legacy is basically defined as “what is left” by the person. However, with most professional athletes, especially with Ray Lewis right now, we’re selective on what he leaves behind for us.
Notably, Lewis won a Super Bowl with the Ravens, played his entire career for the franchise and has continually led one of the NFL’s staunchest defensive units. There are the 13 Pro Bowls, the seven first-team All-NFL honors and the two Defensive Player of the Year awards. There is also the compliments being paid by former coaches, who noted how prepared Lewis was, what a model teammate he was and how his passion for the game evoked the same in others.
Ray Lewis might possibly be the greatest middle linebacker to ever play in the NFL to this point, a high honor considering that includes the likes of Mike Singletary and Dick Butkus. He’s a shoe-in, first ballot Hall of Famer.
But let us not write the epitaph of Ray Lewis’ career without mentioning the murder and aggravated assault charges in Atlanta in January 2000. He pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice after that original indictment.
The details are still sketchy, thirteen years later. But there were two men stabbed to death and the white suit Lewis’ was wearing that night has never been found. His two friends, that he later testified against, were acquitted in June of 2000.
No one else has ever been charged with a crime in connection to the murders.
Then, in April 2004, Lewis paid a settlement with the then four-year-old daughter of one of the men who died, preempting a civil lawsuit. He likewise did the same with the other man’s family.
And as many asked then, why? If innocent, why pay damages preemptively? Why can’t he tell anyone where his clothes are from that night? Why can’t he tell us where he was at the time of the deaths?
For those that say this is drudging up the past, it very well may be – but when an NFL legend retires and everyone else wants to do nothing but pay homage to him, it’s at least worth mentioning. This happened. And we don’t really know what exactly it is that happened. He says he didn’t see anything and was involved in earlier confrontations as a peacemaker.
In the years since, Lewis has greatly rehabbed his image.
He’s been deeply involved with the Baltimore and Miami communities. The Ray Lewis 52 Foundation, a non-profit entity, provides personal and economic assistance to disadvantaged youth. He’s been a big proponent of disabled sports in the U.S. and in developing countries abroad.
But no one who followed the NFL during the 2000 season and subsequent playoffs can forget how awkward it was when Trent Dilfer was given the “I’m going to Disney World” commercial following the Ravens Super Bowl win, despite Lewis being the game’s MVP. No one who remembers that off-season of 2000 can forget how weird it felt to see him touting religion on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2006.
And thus we’re left with the quandary of how to handle athletes like this. This isn’t someone who was involved in drugs and became clean, like say Josh Hamilton, who’s dealt with the awkwardness and tension for longer than Lewis dealt with his accusation of murder.
As a society, aren’t we doing ourselves a disservice by not covering all of a person equally? Just because the last decade happened, doesn’t mean it didn’t occur. I get that we live in a very forgiving society, where second chances are not only afforded, but extended rather easily, depending on what occurred.
But I find our failure over the past 24 hours to cover the entirety of the man’s legacy as quite a shame.
This is not how history should be written, with one lens.
It began before he retired, with the “Football Life” video, and media personalities gushing about what a fine person he was. We must be careful to imply that he isn’t a fine person, based on this incident 13 years ago, yet we must be tactful and forthright by mentioning the charges were filed and he plead guilty to obstruction of justice. Those are facts.
We don’t need to go to a re-trail. Debating his innocence, guilt or connection is irrelevant. He’s not being charged with a new crime or on trial for it now. But you would think that in the hours following his retirement announcement, it would be mentioned. It’s relevant to discuss when considering the entirety of his “legacy”.
And thus his legacy will not be defined by all of his actions, but rather who covers and writes about his actions and which ones they select. And that incompleteness actually says more about us and our media hero worship of professional athletes than it does about Ray Lewis.
I can only hope that others, including myself, will be so lucky as to have our legacy defined by others in a selective fashion that picks the good parts. I’d be a Hall of Famer in something, too.
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