What’s the matter? The elephant that’s been in the room for
13 years decided to let you know he’s always been there? Did it take Wes
Welkers wife to bring attention to it? Or is it invalid because if you lose you
should just go somewhere and try to learn how to win. So you can rationalize
anything. Ray Lewis is retiring and he’s come full circle, and it’s beautiful
yet strange because that circle inevitably leads us back to the fact that he
probably shouldn’t be among us. He was able to afford justice, afford the luxury
of hiding a white suit covered in blood all those years ago and given these
political times he now has cover. This aint about the brotha’s who are unfairly
targeted and arrested nor the ones who end up getting overcharged for bullshit,
it is about the ones we choose to galvanize behind because they can play a
game and pay off families in civil courts. It’s about bringing the politically correct hammer down on anybody who
raises an eyebrow with a Football player unabashedly associating God’s will
with synthetic violence. No weapon used against me can prosper, but please
don’t mention what happened back in the ATL back in the day-remember we got a
Black President ya’ll.
He’s inspirational, he’s a leader, this Baltimore Ravens team
wants to win the Super Bowl for him and if you question him you’re in the
wrong. If he wears religion on his sleeve you should respect it because he just
be the greatest Linebacker of All-time-unlike the white boy who can’t play a
lick of Quarterback. I beg to differ, I may not agree with the forces that use
Tim Tebow as a Right Wing lucky charm but damnit I respect how the young man
“tries” to live his damned life. If he could be deliver the ball from the
pocket he could get some of that Taylor Swift, maybe even dodge a few murky
assault claims and we of the Sports Cathedral would demand you judge him as
flesh and blood. Because that’s how much we love Football, and Ray Lewis plays
it with a passion and accords it with the same theological context you do every
Sunday when you send your woman and your children to services alone. Who are we
to judge, or even ponder how the victims’ families might feel right now after
watching two weeks of Ray Lewis being propped up by Sports media as deity.
Court cases with the assistance of elite attorneys can paint
the same alternative realities as statistic geeks, and it don’t take a genius
to figure out Ray did more than uphold the “Snitches get Stiches” code. Shit,
CSI Atlanta had it been a series in 2000 would have cracked this case just
before the last run of commercials. Fellow Athletes, black athletes snicker
and talk in code on the radio about that fateful weekend in Atlanta-and still
nobody has a problem sweeping 2 non-Football Playing lives under the rug. Black
Sports media types raise their voices just enough to make their white
counterparts back off, he’s done his time! and the Race Card is sitting right
under my thigh. We tend to be able to unite behind Ray after the blood is long
dried, and yet the media never came this strong to denounce the behavior. Not
only am I not my brotha’s keeper, I don’t feel an obligation to keep him after
he’s done some immoral shit like take a life. That is why I don’t listen to Farrakhan,
I’m not the Brotha to look the other way while Malcolm is still in the
ground-we must not be blind to our inhumanity towards one another and expect
humane treatment from others. Black Writers tell us to pay attention and honor
the verdict out of one side of their mouths and then emphasize that the
“Streets talk” when it comes to other subjects-clearly they observe the code as
well. How can anyone jeopardize their credibility defending Ray Lewis and then
call for action on something as blatant as the lack of black coaches hired this
offseason.
Ray Lewis is a big boy, he’s in the damned Super Bowl and
he’s 13 years removed from having to play it when the case was Fresh-he don’t
need protection. Joe Flacco’s Daddy just smashed him and called him “boring”;
an example of the fact that the media has two whole weeks to get all up in ya
business. The Harbaugh Family at some point will get tired and realize how stressful
it will be to see one of their sons hurting due to what the other did to him.
Ray Lewis is walking away from a stellar career and he’s been emotional and
drawing attention to himself; why should anyone apologize for something he did
to create his own narrative? Why should the same people who have no problem
electrocuting a College kid with an imaginary girlfriend pump the breaks on an
issue where people lost their lives? The Parents of Richard Loller and Jacinth
Baker get the message loud and clear that Lewis’s mentorship and NFL Preacher shtick
takes priority over their sons lives, these young men were obscured by Lewis’s
largess the night he entered that club with his boys and the African American
Sports media is asking you to make them invisible again.
BREAKING NEWS:
Sports Illustrated’s David Epstein and George Dohrmann report
Ray Lewis used products provided by Sports with Alternatives to Steroids (the
name says it all) that included tissue regeneration (can you say Kobe?) and a
whole array of stuff you can’t buy at the GNC. The Company is owned by a former
juice dealer and the product of choice is IGF-1, a banned substance that Lewis
was implicated for using as far back as April 2011. The Deluxe program include
substances like Deer antler and Holographic stickers from Jesus himself, and
you best believe if the Ravens win Sunday “Brotha Ray” will cry like a Televangelist
and tell you that God healed his torn triceps. But God is the problem, because
Lewis and the NFL as defacto Religion is the reason many of us take a blind eye
towards the extreme violence and inability of the league to even decide “how”
to test for HGH. So those who love him will shed a tear and those who hate him
will thank the Lord he’s gone and wait for the long-term CTE to set in-and even
then Brotha Ray will forgive your stupid asses.
I say Amen to those who love Football, but shame on those who
do not recognize Idolatry as a Sin.
