This will be my 4th year in a row for Vegas Superbowl weekend. I’ve won big on the game the last three years. I’m still up in the air this time. Lots of pressure on me. But I still have a week and a half to decide.
I’m just speculating here but I suspect Lewis paid off Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting (along with his acknowledged payments to his lawyers, the families of the two victims, and the NFL). It seems unusual to me that Lewis made a deal to testify against Oakley and Sweeting (although he said he didn’t personally see them commit any crimes) but they just appear to have accepted this and have never gave any testimony or made any counter-accusations against Lewis.
I also suspect that some witnesses may have gotten paid. Several witnesses who had made statements against Lewis during the investigation developed memory problems during the trial and testified they weren’t sure about what they saw or heard.
o/~ He didn’t kill no motherf***ing lion… o/~
(I know I did this in another thread concerning Lewis, but I couldn’t resist.)
He will walk off the field in tears. And they wont be tears of joy.
Go 49ers!
It sounds like he’s also been using a banned substance, although it’s hard to put that on a level with being involved in a double murder. Lewis is lucky this is being drowned out by the other Super Bowl noise and that he can’t be suspended if he retires. For that matter I think he’s lucky that football fans don’t seem to care as much about PEDs as baseball fans do.
Other: I have never heard of the murders or of Ray Lewis. I suppose I could look it up, but I don’t really care to.
Heh, imagine if he was suspended for the Superbowl. It would neve happen though.
Until just now, I didn’t realize Ray Lewis paid both victims families undisclosed sums of money to close the lawsuits against him and make this go away. Wow. Best money he ever spent.
This really bothers me. I always thought he was involved with the murders, and this little nugget just solidifies my mind. I don’t know if he actually did the killing (I’m leaning toward no), but when he lies to police about knowing the people in his limo, gives misleading statements and outright lies to investigators, it makes one womder why he got off so lightly.
I suspect the NFL got involved at some level also, because this was a black eye the league did not want on one of its stars right after the Super Bowl. Yes, it was big news then, but less than a year later, he was playing again, no jail, and really no discussion about it. He wasn’t suspended, so it only cost him some money. My guess is that he paid multi-million dollars in settlements to both victims families. I know Lewis supporters will say “he just wanted it to go away.”, and I am sure it’s true. However, if innocent, I just don’t see someone paying money in a wrongful death suit, or whatever he was being sued for. This is such a red flag to me.
He may not be OJ, but apparently Georgia law would have found him guilty of murder for being involved at the scene.
This now makes me sicker than ever that the NFL and the media are not only giving him the focus of a star player retiring after 17 years, but they are treating him as an icon, a player who’s character is above reproach and someone who should be idolized by fans and children. How many people have this guys fathead on their wall?
It is sad, really. And he will come out with another choreographed dance, which will be broadcast everywhere ad nauseum, especially if the Ravens win, but since he’s retiring, he’ll get airtime no matter what.
This country’s priorities are askew. But I guess if the families of the victims got their blood money and aren’t complaining anymore, who am I to care?
He got off lightly because the prosecutor’s didn’t have a great case and needed his truthful testimony to have a shot at conviction. Unfortunately, they didn’t think his deception, shading of evidence, and covering his and his entourage’s ass would continue throughout the whole trial.
There is no way in hell the NFL would risk trying to influence a criminal prosecution or buying off victims’ families. Everyone paying attention knew Ray Lewis was a bad man, and there’s no upside for the NFL once the events had happened.
Must there always be a conspiracy? It would have been illegal and incredibly stupid for the NFL to do this, there’s no evidence they did, and there’s no reason to think the prosecution would have cared what the NFL wanted.
The NFL also fined him $250,000.
That seems likely.
The suit was about his responsibility for the deaths, not his guilt or innocence. Given what everyone already knew - that he was wealthy and had pleaded guilty to obstruction or justice - it looked pretty bad for him anyway.
You are probably right. I don’t think they would try to influence a criminal prosecution. However, I don’t know if the NFL has a “fixer”, like the movies “Michael Clayton”, but with so much money being involved, is it a stretch to believe they would do whatever they could do to “protect the shield”?
When everything is sealed, and non-disclosure agreements are signed, at the end of the day, can anyone prove where the money actually came from?
Also, from a publicity POV, could the NFL have put the clamps on say, ESPN, and tell them to not broadcast this story 24-7 for the entire 6 months between the Super Bowl and training camp?
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. There is enough in the story to cause me to think that Ray Lewis knew exactly what happened. He had no reason to lie unless he was trying to protect someone, himself included. And he continued to lie and obstruct until it was no longer in his best interest to do so.
How this doesn’t raise eyebrows is beyond me. Even more important, how it didn’t raise major eyebrows back then amazes me. Would a Roger Godell handle this kind of thing differently? I’ll bet he would have. He suspended Big Ben with no trial and no charges.
Is there anything out there, like a book, thst follows the story from beginning to end and explains in detail what Lewis did and didn’t do? That would be an interesting read.
I think I explains above that I don’t think the NFL got involved at the trial level. That would have been stupid. However, helping to contain the story and/or help clean up the mess afterwards doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. And I’m not suggesting a conspiracy. I’m suggesting that “protecting the shield”, which is a multi-billion dollar business is always important. To think that the NFL didn’t watch the story closely, and get involved where appropriate (and legal) is naive. I don’t think they would have paid off the judge or rigged the jury for Ray Lewis. No one player is worth the damage that kind of behavior would cause.
The murders were national news. Can you explain what you think they did to “contain the story” or “clean up?”
Conspiracy talk began about Newtown before the bodies were cold. So, yes.
I voted in the hypothetical category of “Dumber than dirt if he ever even wanted to spray deer antler extract into his mouth”.
Too bad the S.W.A.T.S. story has morphed largely into “Did Ray Lewis do it?” rather than what should have been the emphasis: “How can pro athletes be so damned stupid about their health?”
Yes, there must. I read it in the New York Times.