Ray Lewis Has Strong Words For Rice, Reminded Of His 2000 Murder Trial

Ray Lewis and Ray Rice played together on the Baltimore Ravens for five seasons.  Ray Lewis is said to have taken Ray Rice under his wing, treated him as a brother and not just a teammate.  Lewis was the unquestionable leader of those teams on the field and was often the vocal leader off the field.

Lewis, who now has a statue bearing his likeness outside of the stadium, had some stern words for Rice.

Monday night on the set of ESPN‘s Monday Night Countdown, live from Detroit, before the Giants-Lions face-off.

“I’m disappointed. This is personal for me,” Lewis explained.

“So I’m torn because this is a young man I really took up under my wing and tried to mentor to make sure he had a successful career and stayed away from things like this. Seeing this video, let me be very clear with going through this personally, a man should never, ever put his hands on a woman. Bottom line. We can speculate about a lot of things but what we need to make sure is very clear is what we saw on this video is him putting his hands on a woman and that’s where it’s personal for me.”

Ray Lewis explained that he witnessed his mother suffer domestic violence growing up and the new footage struck a personal cord with him.

“That was one of the greatest things that drove me in my life, which was to make sure a man never touched my mom again. I witnessed that and there were times I went through beatings with her,” Lewis said.

“To go through that and know what that feels like, that a woman is lesser than you and can’t fight back. If that’s my sister or daughter, then we have another issue. So for me, it stings. It stings because he’s a friend and I’ve always tried to take this young man and give him something different. Teach him something different and educate him while he was going on in this process.”

Now, Ray Lewis is known for his passion, but host Suzy Kolber tried to question and compare the treatment of Rice getting cut for domestic abuse and the treatment Ray Lewis received during his 2000 murder trial, in which was charged with two counts of murder and he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.

“There is no comparison. This is nothing about me, personally, me speaking with the owner of the Ravens today, Steve Biscotti, just moments ago,” Lewis said. “And just listening to the reason why Ray Rice will never play for the Ravens again, he put his daughter — he put anybody that’s connected to him that’s a female — he put them in that position. When you do that you have to take a step back.”

Lewis said that he has texted Ray Rice and plans on visiting him when he returns to Baltimore.  Lewis spoke sternly about his brother, but he will still be there for his brother.

“Sometimes friends tell you what you want to hear, and best friends tell you what you need to hear,” Lewis said on ESPN. “I told him I will be there to talk to him. I really went to sit down, and I want to know what is going on in his heart and I want to know what his mindset is and what is next for Ray Rice. I am not talking about football. I am talking about the man. Where do you go from here as a man? Where is your focus right now?”


(brothersonsports.com)