Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/stor...6pLid%3D251953

this actually almost makes me cry.. i dont even like the Ravens, but i think Ray Lewis is the greatest defensive player IMO over the past 20 years... his motivational speeches are legendary and his work ethic is unrivaled.. i will post more once i learn more.. but this is truly sad news to me

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Saddened, but I do believe it's time. After 17 years, he's done all he can do. Nothing left to prove, except his love of the game.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Sad news indeed but there comes a time when you gotta hang up the cleats. A true team player and first ballot HOF. Big shoes to fill.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcSBw76_tpk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M62iU4hWV_g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bb1jQ4DtSI

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

He has had a huge impact on his team and fans. He will be missed.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Hell of a player, but I can't say I'm sad to see him go since I'm a pats fan.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Why, thats Tom Bradys favorite player.. lol... no really.. look it up

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

I am a fan of Ray Lewis, he is a leader.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Sad to see him go but I am glad he is doing it now vs. later and risking damaging his body even more than it probably already is.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Such glowing praise for a man who was charged with murder, then had that charge reduced when he agreed to testify against his co-defendants. Same guy who's suit he was wearing the night of the murder mysteriously vanished. Same guy who in civil court settled with the family of murder victim.

Sorry but I can't heap praise on a guy for his athletic ability when he was involved in such things.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Oh I hate to admit I forgot about that :cf2

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

:cl :cl :cl

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

+1 I wanted to write something similar, but I was having trouble coming up with something this tasteful.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

I'm glad to see him go, but I'd like to see Ed Reed, LeDarius Webb, and Terrell Suggs gone, too.
And I'd like to see Ray Rice in the Steeler's backfield. :)

There's a good show on ESPN, 30/30 or Legends of the Game or something that did a Ray Lewis story. It cast him in an awful good light, as I'm sure it's supposed to, but it makes it very easy to read between the lines and figure out he's grown up and put his head on straight since he got in trouble, for what that's worth.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

yeah because nobody has made mistakes in life..

because every professional athlete is a shining example of proper behavior (especially NFL)

lets get real here people.. everybody has had their brushes with the law, has made a mistake, has altered the lives of others.. Who are we to judge this man of things we have no facts on.. What does that make the people judging him?

puhlease.. that is bullshit.. the guy is a first ballot hall of famer. Without question... He was also deemed innocent.. So we ought to treat him as such

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Well so was OJ. The fact is, that there is a lot of mystery surrounding what actually took place during that event. He settled a civil suit which doesn't mean he's guilty, but doesn't point to innocence either. Hell of a football player, but don't tell me I have to believe that he did not have something to hide there.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Sorry, Ron.
I have made mistakes in life. As I am sure you have, too.
But I don't think either of us have been charged with murder.

Helluva a player. I don't disagree.
But don't put the man on a pedestal. Ask yourself this. Could you look past his "mistakes in life" if he were dating your daughter?

And there is nothing "innocent" about him.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Wish he would play another year or three. He is a shell of what he once was, and the way the Steelers played this year, they need all the help they can get.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

I understand he is your favorite player, Ron, but making mistakes, and being implicated in a murder are not exactly the same thing. Seems you are judging the people who choose to judge Lewis a bit harder than you do.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Sorry Peter.. im AM putting him on a pedestal.. He is the best defensive player to take the field since Lawrence Taylor.. Im not willing to look past that for some mistakes and bad judgements he made in his early 20's..

And im also sorry, but i do believe that a person is innocent until proven guilty.. And if he isnt/wasnt charged, then he is innocent.. You want to blame somebody for that, blame our judicial system.. but thats the way it is.. Fair is Fair.


Yes Peter.. Yes i would..

Thats like a person who has never had a drug addiction telling an ex drug-addict that "having an addiction is for weak people".. Um, how would you know until you've been in that position.? Easy answer.. That person WOULDNT. lol



Tom, i know you are in the law enforcement field, but i still think every person should be given a second chance.. I was given one, and not a day goes by where it doesnt cross my mind.. especially as a motivational piece.. Maybe that is why his situation hits hard for me.. This man has earned the right to live his life and move on.. he has been an upstanding citizen ever since his run-in.. What more does he have to pay? Ive had enough of society rejecting people because of their past.. Its shallow and pathetic.


____


Infact.. why are we having this conversation of social acceptance in a post that was made to celebrate the FOOTBALL career of a first ballot hall of fame football player?

Enough is Enough

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

I watched Ray play in High School and win a state wrestling championship. I talked to his coach back then and was told most troubled determined athlete he'd ever seen. Coach said Miami is not the place for him.

He made mistakes, he was there when a murder took place, pannicked and lied. Then testified to put the murderers in jail and paid the families of the victims. Ray did not, and I believe this, did not kill anyone, but was there.
He has changed, grown up, and by all accounts became a model citizen.

As a football players maybe the best ever, as a man he still has years to prove who he is.

Would I let him date my daughter? No , he will have to prove his whole life that he has changed from the young man in that limo. For me to hold him on the Man pedestal.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

stabby isn't retiring this will be farve part 2

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

So I am shallow and pathetic because I don't look past Lewis' past?

And remember O.J. was aquitted....think he is innocent? I am sorry, Ron, in one part you critisize the legal system, in another you quote the "innocent until proven guilty" part....I know you are not naive enough to think that everyone not charged or not convicted is innocent.

I know when some people make a thread, they want it all to go their way, and celebrate their point-of-view. But when you throw it out there, you run the risk of oppposing or divergent points of view. As long as it remains civil, that is part of open discourse...you can't dictate where the conversation goes. Have your say, but allow others to have theirs (within civility) without becoming emotional or adversarial....that's my 1 1/2 cents, and worth every penny.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

The fact that people are judging him based on something they know nothing about is pathetic and shallow. Take it how you want it. Ive been one of these people that were judged, and it makes me sick. Yeah. SICK.

This is a football career im refering to. So if people want to polute it with their judgements of how "they view him" (a complete stranger), then go right ahead. But i wont sit here and like it. Society amd their judgements of random peoples pasts sre a joke. Now take a step back and think about how silly i is to make judgements on a complete stranger

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Time for everyone to step back, take a deep breath and have a cigar. Maybe some beverage-of-choice too.

Nothing wrong with agreeing-to-disagree...

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Thank you Micheal.. cigar time indeed.. ! sorry if i sound silly guys, but it just doesnt seem right to me..

i just think its not a matter of disagreeing.. but rather passing judgement on a complete stranger isnt very gentlemanly IMO..

i started the thread to talk about him retiring from football.. Now all of the sudden, 13 years after the fact, his character is still questioned.. just sad IMO..

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Why sad? You started the thread talking about retirement. Then you called him the best defensive player in the past 20 years and a guaranteed first ballot Hall of Famer.

Not convicted is not the same as innocent. Turning state's evidence in return for dropping or reduction in charges is not innocent. In some cases even acquittal does not mean innocent.

If you had left the discussion to just his retirement then the subject of character may not have even been broached. But when you opened the conversation to more than retirement, everything is fair game. :2

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

You are passing judgement of a complete stranger as well, Ron....yours is just a positive judgement. If it is sad and pathetic for me to question a man's character for involvement in the most serious crime known to man, color me pathetic.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Which is exactly what you have done here.

So sorry we all don't agree with you but to categorize us all as sad and pathetic because of it is insulting.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

a win for Lewis at his final game at M&T Bank Stadium... couldnt be happier..

Do your thing Ray...... do your thing...

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

1) more than lied. His suit from that evening has never been found. Why on Earth would he discard it? He was more than just there. He was part of the fight.

2) he didn't pay those families as a gesture of kindness. He was sued and it was part of an undisclosed settlement to make the suits go away.

3) he was indicted for murder along with the other two defendants. After the indictment, he took a plea to testify against the others, who I believe we're acquitted, hence he didn't really help put anyone in jail.

Love him as a football player but by no means justify what he did. In my opinion, he is no different than OJ, a man who got away with being involved in a taking a life, and in Ray's case, two lives. For me personally, doesn't matter what he did on the gridiron as he never paid his debt to society.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Like I said, I would not let him date my daughter.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

the funny part is, every person who has posted on this thread feels that he did not personally commit the murder..

So what did he do? throw his suit away? lol.. get real... he was a kid.. he panicked... kids make mistakes.. now he is a grown man, still being judged by grown men (who apparently never made mistakes as kids)...

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Not really sure where in my post you got that message.

Lets all grow up to someday be like him.:rolleyes:

He is a piece of crap that got away with being involved in the deaths of two human beings. That is more than a "mistake".

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

That's just plain ignorant. You dont have to pull the trigger to be indicted. If he was there, then he is charged with the same crime. Lots of "kids" spending 20-Life for similar participation in murder.

Judging him guilty of murder, no. Judging his character as flawed, yes. :sh

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Mistakes as a kid? Sure....but I was never implicated in a double homicide.

But what do I know? I am apparently pathetic.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

:r

Great player and strong personality in the locker/on the field. Would not want to disrespect anyone in his family... :sl

Angel or someone to look up to... Not really. His timing is perfect for his retirement.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

Had a hell of a game today...13 tackles.

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

yeah, because your "judgement" means alot of something he did as a kid over a decade ago.. nobody is saying he is a saint


and yes... the way people think they can "cast out" somebody for something that happened in somebodies youth, is purely pathetic.. Ill say it again for those who have trouble understanding.. "Judging people for their past problems is pathetic".. And its good to see that people who are in the line of work of viewing people as innocent until proven guilty openly profile some people as bad... truly Sad. So much for open minded

i would love nothing more than to ask a few questions about the upbringing of the people questioning his integrity (for something that happened almost half his life ago)... seriously, grow up.. real men dont judge others on their past mistakes..


i can do this all day long boys.. being that it was turned into a social acceptance thread instead of a football thread..

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

exactly... it was great to see how somebody who was so "done" come back and make it happen.... respect

Re: Ray Lewis to Retire :(
 

This pissing match is over.
And I've had enough of the condescension and insults in response to respectful discourse.

As for doing this "all day long", you are sadly mistaken. Hope you don't have any "trouble understanding".