Personified by Ray Lewis.
There has never been nor ever will be a more thuggish team in the NFL.
Personified by Ray Lewis.
Actually when you look at this database of NFL players and arrests NFL Arrests Database , in recent years at least, the Baltimore Ravens have been one of the “cleaner” teams and the Steelers seem to have had about the same number of players arrested as the Ravens. I don’t think coach Harbaugh puts up with much off field shenanigans, the team having cleaned up its off field act since Harbaugh took over.
As far as Ray Lewis; by his own admission he was living the party life and hanging out with thugs. Lewis describes the events of 2000 and his indictment on charges of murder and aggravated assault as a “watershed moment”, a wakeup call. It’s still unclear exactly what his involvement was; he admitted to lying to the police and allegedly stood by doing nothing while his companions killed a pair of men, however the murder and aggravated assault charges against Lewis were dropped in exchange for his testimony against the other men and a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to a year of probation. The NFL fined him $250,000. It should also be noted that his companions were subsequently acquitted on grounds of self-defense; their defense was that the two men killed had threatened Lewis' group with a gun.
Of course some people think Lewis was guilty of murder and got off easy and I get that perception – it’s still murky exactly what happened that night. However no one can say that Ray Lewis hasn’t been squeaky clean ever since. He became deeply religious, a committed and vocal Christian and it’s evidently not an act. He mentors and speaks to young NFL players about what not to do with their lives, using his past as an example.
“I tell them, ‘Trust me, don’t ever take my path,’ ” Lewis said. “ ‘Don’t ever do it the way I did it because everyone won’t make it. You got to be willing to walk in a storm.’ That’s what I tell people all the time: ‘If there’s something in your life that you know needs changing, make sure you change it before God’s got to change it. Because if God’s got to change it, you ain’t going to like it.’ ”
Something a lot of people don’t know about Ray Lewis is that although he makes good money from endorsements and giving paid inspirational/motivational speeches, often with a strong underlying Christian message, a lot of corporate gigs, he also gives talks to youth groups, often quietly, without fan fare, sometimes unannounced and at no charge.
Believe it or not, Lewis went from being one of the NFL’s bad boys, a self admitted thug in the past, to one of the NFL’s good guys and a role model on how to turn one’s life around.