Does Everybody Have To Love Ray Lewis Now?

In Life, everybody makes a mistake or two. However, most people do not play professional football or make a mistake that changes a life. For Ray Lewis, he did have that mistake, he repented and supposedly changed, and is now being praised as an humanitarian, and a Hall of Fame football player. For some they are still heartbroken, and will never see what Ray Lewis stands for now. This story has been critiqued, and dissected a million times, but as I watch the playoffs, and see him being worshipped and put on a altar of greatness, I cant help but think about the families that didn't get to see their sons achieve greatness. I also cant help but to feel a little sick about polarizing a man who has brutal truth buried inside him.


It was Jan 31 2000 and Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker were out late and doing what every young 24 and 21 year old does, having a good time. Ray Lewis and his entourage were partying too, at a posh nightclub after Super Bowl XXXIV. After leaving the nightclub Lewis, and some friends got into his limo when supposedly a liquor bottle hit Reginald Oakley, a music producer and former barber, whom Lewis met at University of Miami. We all know what happens next, a fight ensued and it left 2 men stabbed and left there to die. It is worth pointing out that Lollar was 24 years old, and his fiance was pregnant when he died. Baker was 21.Witnesses seen Lewis's limo speed away
from the scene, to get away from the trouble they now found themselves in.

Ray Lewis and his friends were eventually arrested and faced murder charges. A promising football career derailed because of some questionable decisions. A very big mistake you can say. Later, Ray Lewis would plea to a lesser charge of obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to a year probation, and had to pay 250,000 dollar fine. The fine was from the NFL for violating its conduct policy. His two friends were also acquitted after Lewis's testimony. Closure and justice would have to wait for the Lollar and Baker families. Today it looks like that may never happen.

Now today are we as sports fans supposed to buy into this new man myth and legend. Are we supposed to hold onto every word that Lewis says like its street and football gospel. Do I hate Ray Lewis? No, hate is a strong word, but I don't feel like I have to respect him, or be force fed all this hoopla that is surrounding his "last ride". Many have said to let it go, you cant just remember that, he did some great things off the field. He became a field general, a changed person, someone for kids to look up too. For all that I say OK. He may have changed, he became a great football player, but his greatness as a person will always be a question mark.

To all those people that look up to him, that think he is a great person, an humanitarian, I ask you to think about this. Something more happened that night in Atlanta, we may never know because the cops closed the case. I want you to think about the Lollar and Baker families. I want you to think about the little girl that is growing up without her father. I want you to think about how these people feel every time Ray does his ridiculous introduction dance. These families will never get answers, every time his name is mentioned their heart gets ripped out a little more. So if Ray Lewis is a changed man, a man of God why don't he go to the families and tell them what he really knows, and maybe give them a little piece of hope that they can hold onto. Will people forget about this whole situation? Most fans will, but there are still fans that every time he speaks and dances will be reminded of a night that ruined families lives.