The NFL had hoped it could bask in the afterglow of one of the best Super Bowls ever. But with Carolina Panthers receiver Rae Carruth charged last month with arranging a fatal “hit” on his pregnant girlfriend, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was already on the defensive. “The track record of our players is far better than society at large,” he said before the Super Bowl, amid reports that 13 Rams and Titans had criminal records. But when “only the first active NFL player ever charged with murder” became only the second NFL star arrested for murder in six weeks, the league grew silent.
A good thing, too, because more bad news was to come. In rapid succession, two Kansas City Chiefs were named as the targets of a federal drug-smuggling investigation and a Carolina running back was arrested on drug and weapons charges. “Athletes act as if the basic rules of society don’t apply to them,” says Dr. Stanley Teitelbaum, a clinical psychologist who counsels pro players.
At the weekend, the details surrounding the Lewis case remained murky. He and his pals fled the melee–apparently with shots fired at them–in a Lincoln Navigator stretch limo. But his attorney, Ed Garland, said that before Lewis departed, his actions were “consistent with being a peacemaker.” But Lewis, known for his maniacally aggressive play on the field, has hardly been a peacemaker off it. He was investigated twice, though never charged, while he was a University of Miami student, after pregnant girlfriends told police that he assaulted them. The Ravens have been worried about Lewis’s choice of companions. “These guys were hard-core,” says a teammate. “If someone was f—–g with Ray, talking s–t to him, his boys jumped in and blood was shed.”
In today’s celebrity culture there is a new fusion, or perhaps a confusion, of sports and entertainment. “Ballers want to be rappers and rappers want to be ballers” is the catch-phrase. “It’s all about hanging out in the right spot and being seen all the time,” says Tampa Bay star Warren Sapp, a college teammate of Lewis’s. “And trouble is always close behind.” Last week trouble caught up with Ray Lewis, and the NFL has to be worried whom it will catch next.
