Ray Lewis: Guilty or Redeemed?

With the end of Super Bowl XLVII fresh on many fans’ minds and Baltimore Linebacker Ray Lewis’s career in the NFL closing out, questions linger as to how this man will be remembered. Will he be remembered as the guilty man responsible for the murders of two men? Or will he be praised for turning his life around and becoming a better man?

After winning Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000, Ray Lewis was suspected of murdering two men outside an Atlanta club. The two men, Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker, were stabbed to death by Lewis’s posse and left the scene in Lewis’s limo. Blood was found in the limo Ray Lewis was using and he reportedly told everyone in the limousine to “keep their mouths shut” and later on in the hotel to a female who was in the limousine “I’m not trying to end my career like this”. 

When brought to trial, “only Lewis pleaded guilty in relation to the case: for obstruction of justice, a misdemeanor. He originally was charged with two counts of murder but struck a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony against two of his companions that night, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting” (Schrotenboer, 2013). 

Over the last 13 years, Lewis has repeatedly denied having murdered anyone and has expressed his grief and sorrow for the families' losses. In 2010, Lewis stated in an interview with The Baltimore Sun, "I'm telling you, no day leaves this Earth without me asking God to ease the pain of anybody who was affected by that whole ordeal." he said. "He's a God who tests people — not that he put me in that situation, because he didn't make me go nowhere. I put myself in that situation."

Ray Lewis has certainly been a phenomenal athlete and leader on the football field. During the 2012 season, Lewis overcame a torn triceps early in the season and returned to rally his team through the playoffs. In his final game as an NFL player, Lewis helped his team win another Super Bowl victory. 

Although Ray Lewis ended his NFL career on a high note the final chapter has yet to be written.   How will fans remember Ray Lewis? Is he the guilty man tied to the two men who were murdered in Atlanta? Or has Ray Lewis transformed his ways to choose a better path by walking in his faith with God?   Guilty or Redeemed --- your thoughts???