In case you missed the Super Bowl pregame, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis finally spoke about the double murder in which he was implicated in 2000, and basically said God has proven his innocence. Indicted on murder and assault charges in the stabbing deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar, Lewis struck a plea deal for obstruction of justice in exchange for testimony against two other defendants, who were eventually acquitted. He later struck financial settlements with families of both of the victims.
When Shannon Sharpe, interviewing Lewis for a CBS segment, asked his former Ravens teammate what he’d say to those families, Lewis said, “It’s simple.”
“God has never made a mistake. That’s just who He is, you see. And if our system – it’s the sad thing about our system – if our system took the time to really investigate what happened 13 years ago, maybe they would have got to the bottom line truth,” Lewis said. “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.”
On that financial settlement?
“The one thing I said that, because my name was used the wrong way, money is the last thing I’m worried about, but if money will help those kids out – and not just those kids but any kid I can help, any family I can support, I’ll support,” Lewis said. “So don’t just take that family and say I gave money to that family, because I’ve given money to thousands of families time and time again, just to find a different way to help somebody through a rough time.”
After the segment ended, it was the comment of analyst and former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason that set Twitter afire.
“He was involved in a double murder and I’m not so sure he gave us all the answers we were looking for,” Esiason said. “He knows what went on there. He can obviously just come out and say it. He doesn’t want to say it. He paid off the families – I get all that, that’s fine. But that doesn’t take away from who he is as a football player. I appreciate you going down there and asking him that direct question. I’m not so sure I buy the answer.”
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