Keep That Same Energy

What up y’all?  The 2017-2018 NFL season has concluded and the Hall of Fame candidates have been announced.  I see the football gods are not without a sense of irony as sure fire first ballot hall of famer, the good reverend Raymond Anthony Lewis aka #52 in purple, was informed of the selection hours before Super Bowl LLII (52) was set to kick off.  I’m going to preface the rest of this with two things:  First, I am NOT a fan of Ray Lewis the person and secondly however, I do believe he was the greatest to play his position and revolutionized defensive game planning in the NFL.

Recently I’ve noticed Rev. Ray popping up at different events in the Baltimore area.  Not a big deal, right?  My issue is, it has always seemed the case that he forgets how important this town has been to him when the cameras go away.  Until recently…I’ve noticed on my timeline lately that there has been a lot of old squirrel dancing yo popping up on my time line and I feel like the timing is very interesting.  His induction to Canton pending seems to have him loving Charm City all over again.  Is he feeling nostalgic writing that speech, or could it be something different?

The 2018 Hall of Fame class includes Randy Moss and Terrell Owens (2 of the top 3 wide receivers of all time) as well as Brian Urlacher, and Brian Dawkins.  This year’s class will probably draw a big crowd in the late summer ceremony.  Is Ray looking to up his local profile to get a good pro Ray turnout in Canton?  Why would he need to up his profile in a city that looked at him like grape flavored Jesus for his duration as a linebacker here in the city that reads?

It started when he retired.  In his second career as a broadcaster he took every opportunity to attack and downplay his former team and teammates on national TV at ESPN, specifically taking shots at Joe Flacco and Terrell Suggs for a lack of leadership in the locker room.  Then there was the “Stay in your homes” video during the Baltimore Uprising in late April in 2015.  He followed that up with a meeting with our current commander in chief that lost a large part of his black/liberal following.  He then made negative comments regarding Colin Kaepernick’s protest.  These things seemed to up his stock with the purple camouflage crowd from Dundalk aka conservative Baltimore.  Then in a bit of a turn, during the anthem in a nationally televised game he took TWO knees “in prayer” and dad jeans.  This completely alienated the conservative crowd previously mentioned who immediately recalled their guy was “a murderer”.  So that begs the question will these weapons formed against him prosper?  That remains to be seen.

I will never be a guy that won’t stand behind his words.  If you agree or disagree let me know.  You can reach me directly on Twitter or IG @illfam79, email me at illfam79@gmail.com or catch me every weekend on the Where’s Buffy Podcast (@wheresbuffy).  Above all else, keep that same energy.  Peace.