Ray Lewis Has Harsh Words For Former Friend, And Teammate, Ray Rice: Lewis Says, "If You Treat Your Mother A Certain Way You'll Never Treat A Woman A Certain Way"
Ray Lewis isn't the only one speaking out about Ray Rice, a lot of fans, athletics, and media outlets, including the President's press secretary had some words for the now former Baltimore Ravens.
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But Lewis, was not only a teammate, but a mentor for Rice had a pretty lengthy statement surrounding the new video that has cause Rice his NFL career.
"I'm disappointed. This is personal for me," Lewis said, according to US Today. "So I'm torn because this is a young man I really took up under my wing and tried to mentor to make sure he had a successful career and stayed away from things like this. Seeing this video, let me be very clear with going through this personally, a man should never, ever put his hands on a woman. Bottom line. We can speculate about a lot of things but what we need to make sure is very clear is what we saw on this video is him putting his hands on a woman and that's where it's personal for me."
He continued, "That was one of the greatest things that drove me in my life, which was to make sure a man never touched my mom again. I witnessed that and there were times I went through beatings with her," Lewis shared. "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. So for me, it stings. It stings because he's a friend and I've always tried to take this young man and give him something different. Teach him something different and educate him while he was going on in this process."
As Lewis say with the ESPN analysts on the Countdown show, he became sidetracked when host Suzy Kolber brought up how the Ravens' treated Rice in comparison to Lewis' 2000 murder trial, which resulted in him pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.
"There is no comparison. This is nothing about me, personally, me speaking with the owner of the Ravens today, Steve Biscotti, just moments ago," Lewis replied. "And just listening to the reason why Ray Rice will never play for the Ravens again, he put his daughter - he put anybody that's connected to him that's a female - he put them in that position. When you do that you have to take a step back."
"One thing Steve made very clear, there is no comparison of me and Ray Rice. 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."
Lewis revealed that he had reached out to Rice via text message Monday and plans to see him when he returns to Baltimore later on this week. Lewis promises "to be the same mentor I was the first time he walked through the door."