The Baltimore Ravens has terminated the contract of Ray Rice following a video released by TMZ wherein the NFL star punched and knockedout his girlfriend, Janay Palmer. The NFL has also suspended the running back indefinitely. This Ray Rice news rocked the whole league and its reputation has been tarnished once again. The public thinks that NFL covered up Rice's domestic violence because he has a great marketing value. However, for Ray Lewis, a former teammate and mentor of Rice, he was disappointed by the ugly incident on a personal level.
"I'm disappointed," Lewis said when he appeared on ESPN's Monday Night Countdown.
Lewis played his entire career with Baltimore Ravens and worked with Ray Rice for four years.
"This is personal for me. I'm torn. This is a guy, a young man, that I really took up under my wing and tried to mentor...For me, it stings. He's a friend. I've always tried to take this young man and teach him something different. When you watch this video, you see that something was lost. Some leadership was lost."
It is easy to understand where Lewis is coming from. Her own mother was a victim of domestic violence.
"My mom went through that. It was one of the greatest things that drove me in my life. I witnessed that. I went through beatings with her. 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."
Lewis himself battled a crime, too, back in 2000 when he was accused of murder. However, he was not proven guilty by the court. The two-time Super Bowl champion said that he and Rice's situation are totally different.
"There is no comparison between me and Ray Rice," he said. "It's night and day. It's night and day of anything we've ever been through and that's why both situations are totally different."
Although disappointed of the Ray Rice news, Lewis still believe that the 27-year old player can still recover.
"You have to stand still in the midst of this storm. You humble yourself. You seek counsel."
