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Feb. 1, 2000 SportsLine wire reports |
Ray Lewis' intensity and aggressiveness on the field made
him a star in the NFL.
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Ravens All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis charged in double-homicide T O P N E W S
Lewis, the middle linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, led the team in tackles in each of his four pro seasons. He has been selected to the Pro Bowl three times, and had planned to start for the first time in Sunday's game in Hawaii.
But he recently admitted that, at times, he played without enough self-control.
"I still mess up a lot because I'm overaggressive at times," he said in December after being chosen to the AFC Pro Bowl squad. "Coach (Jack) Del Rio has made me focus on calming down and letting plays come to me."
Lewis, 24, was charged by Atlanta police with murder late Monday in the slayings of two people outside an Atlanta nightclub hours after the Super Bowl. The charge came after a day of investigation into the slaying near the Cobalt lounge in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood about 4 a.m. Monday.
His hands shackled in front of him, Lewis appeared in court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing on the charges. The hearing was postponed until Feb. 24 at the request of the prosecutor, and Lewis was held without bail.
His lawyer, Max Richardson Jr., said Lewis is innocent.
"We're taking the position that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Richardson said outside the courtroom. "From what I've gathered from law enforcement officers, they know Ray didn't kill these unfortunate victims. ... They don't know where the other two men who were involved are, so they arrested Ray."
Lewis became an instant star with the Ravens after being selected out of Miami in the first round of the 1996 draft. He led the team with 142 tackles as a 21-year-old rookie and had an NFL-best 210 tackles in 1997.
He has served as the centerpiece of a young linebacking crew that includes Peter Boulware and Jamie Sharper. In the midst of his third consecutive outstanding season, in 1998, Lewis signed an extension through the 2003 season.
His future, and that of the Ravens, seemed limitless. Led by Lewis, Baltimore finished with the second-ranked defense in the NFL this season and won a franchise-record eight games -- including a 41-14 rout of the AFC champion Tennessee Titans in which Lewis had a team-high 13 tackles.
But Lewis' season was marred by a brush with the law that occurred only days before the Dec. 5 game against the Titans.
According to Baltimore police, Lewis was accused of punching a woman in a bar and then leaving the scene. He was served a criminal summons in response to a complaint by Katrice Sherree Parker.
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| Ray Lewis, sacking Bills QB Doug Flutie, has led the Ravens in tackles each of the past four years.(AP) |
According to the police report, Lewis and Parker, 24, became involved in a dispute shortly before 1 a.m. Nov. 30 at the Windsor Mill Inn. Parker then called police and ultimately filed a complaint in District Court.
Lewis denied responsibility, and Ravens coach Brian Billick spoke strongly on behalf of his linebacker.
"It's not my position here to make excuses for Ray. If due process plays itself out, as it rightfully should, what happened will become fairly clear and we will be able to move through it quickly," Billick said.
Lewis now has a much more serious issue on his hands, one that could spell the end to a promising career that was built around his unbounded aggression on the playing field.
He is not unfamiliar to the violence off the field. He often wears a shirt with a picture of his former best friend and Miami teammate, Marlin Barnes, who was slain in 1996.
Labrant "Anthony" Dennis was convicted in the beating deaths of Barnes and Timwanika Lumpkins, the mother of Dennis' 3-year-old daughter.
Lewis, who is not married, has at least one son, 4-year-old Ray Anthony Lewis Jr.
According to The Miami Herald on Tuesday, one girlfriend, pregnant with Lewis' child, told police Lewis pushed her, struck her in the face and put his hands around her neck during an argument in 1994. The woman gave birth to a healthy baby and declined to press charges.
One year later, another girlfriend, also pregnant with Lewis' child, said Lewis grabbed her shoulder during an argument, shook her and scratched her arm. The woman, Kimberly Arnold, complained that police tried to protect Lewis, who was never charged.
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