And not just because he, a man who beat a murder rap a few years back, Ben Roethlisberger and other NFL stars will be out on the streets with too much time on their hands. He means, because the people who “live through” the NFL will go thug if there teams aren’t playing on Sunday.
Lewis said a lockout would impact more than just NFL players.
“What we’re going through right now, we’re affecting way more than us,” he said. “Too many people live through us. People live through us. Walk in the streets the way I walk in the streets.”
And according to Lewis, one of the major results of lockout would be an increase of evil, which he says will come in the form of more crime.
“Do this research if we don’t have a season — watch how much evil, which we call crime — watch how much crime picks up if you take away our game.”
History doesn’t back Lewis up on this. American fans have experienced several pro sports strikes since the 1980s and there was no corresponding spike in crime. People mostly went about their business, though Major League Baseball did suffer a hangover from its last strike, that has only really gone away in the last two to three seasons.
Imagine if one of the owners had said that. Imagine if Jerry Jones tried drawing the players back to negotiations by warning that street crime will run rampant if the games don’t go on. It’s a good thing Jones is smart enough to not saying anything close to this, and has found another use for his new stadium this August.
On the other hand, maybe Lewis was just making a “bread and circuses” argument for keeping the NFL going. There’s no question that we need some distractions from the unfolding series of disasters that is the Obama presidency.
And the sad part is they’re gonna blame it on my man, Barack, who happens to be an NBA fan and is away checkin’ out his white roots in Ireland as I write this. Hell, there’s no reason not to believe the boys are gonna rumble, rock n’ roll all over this nation if they can’t get their NFL fix, watchin’ the hits and seein’ the beer chick commercials. I see crime in the streets of the cities. I see devastation–oh wait, that’s from tornadoes killing people while my man, Barack is elsewhere just when we need him . . . again. I say, it’s a crime.
I’m sure a public defender somewhere is cooking up an “Eli Manning withdrawal” strategy this very minute.
I wonder why the reactions to threats to burn a Koran come to mind. Surely, there could be no parallels.
What percentage of crimes will be committed by Ray Lewis personally?
Ray’s dead on! I expect to see at least 10-12 Black NFL’ers arrested during any lockout
I’m not a Jerry Jones fan, but I can say he’s not waiting around to keep Texas Stadium busy this fall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYlIO2hfSh4&feature=player_embedded