They don’t understand that obstructing justice in a murder case is especially hard on the person who obstructed justice in a murder case.
Yeah, those guys that got stabbed probably aren’t too happy about being dead. But what about me? What about what I went through? My God. There were nights . . . I couldn’t sleep. No joke. All I could think was, Is this gonna be the end of my career? Am I gonna have to forfeit the prorated portion of my signing bonus? What will become of Ray Lewis and his lucrative endorsement deal with Converse? Did Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker ever have to worry about that? HELL 2 DA NAW! No, they probably went straight up to heaven and are just sittin’ pretty now. Okay? They didn’t have to deal with all this media-circus bullshit. They didn’t have to go look their teammates in the eye and say, “Brother, I let you down.” They didn’t have to receive a huge contract extension a year later. They didn’t have to do any of that. Ray Lewis did. They got off clean. Me? I had to spend two whole days repenting for what I did. What did those two guys know about personal anguish? Nothing. They ain’t lived through what Ray Lewis has had to live through. Probably because they are dead now.
This is what you’re gonna have to deal with now that you’re a professional. This is what the media does. They build you up into a bigass hero. Then, when you obstruct justice after two people are stabbed, they knock your ass down. Like those reporters don’t have anything to hide. No skeletons in their limos. Well, they’re liars. Hippopotamuses.
See, these people don’t have God inside them. They judge me, without seeing the whole story. They don’t see Ray Lewis, the Super Bowl MVP. They don’t see Ray Lewis preaching at church every third Sunday of the month. They don’t see all that I’ve done to atone for my sins, and then some. No, all they do is keep their minds closed and judge me based on one mistake I made. Well, two mistakes.
(rises up)
BUT I AM NOT ABOUT TO STAND FOR THAT HATE, MY FRIEND! I AM NOT GOING TO LET THOSE HATERS GET TO MY SOUL, ASSUMING THAT I HAVE ONE! NO, I AIN’T! I AM NOT GOING TO LET THEM CHANGE WHO RAY LEWIS IS, EVEN IF THAT COULD POTENTIALLY BE FOR THE BETTER! I AM NOT GOING TO LET THE FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS CONTACT ME EXCEPT THROUGH MY LAWYER! CAN YOU FEEL ME NOW, MY BROTHER? CAN YOU FEEL THE REDEMPTION? PREACHER RAY IS PUTTING ON A SHOW FOR YOU! PREACHER RAY IS SHOWING YOU THE TRUE PATH TO SALVATION! IT IS NOT THROUGH HATE! IT IS THROUGH LOVING YOURSELF, AND NEVER FINDING ANY FAULT WITH YOURSELF! HALLELUJAH!
How you feel now? You feeling me? Now, I’ve learned how to block all that shit out. I don’t read the papers anymore. I don’t listen to the radio or to fans or to my own inner monologue. I don’t have room for haters in my life. I am all about the positive, the now, the future. I just keep my nose to the grindstone and keep on goin’ with God.
And by God, of course, I mean me, Ray Lewis.
DAY 12. Almost all the media have abandoned the story and dissipated from your home. A few tenacious ones remain, but they can be easily frightened by a hungry Rottweiler.
DAY 13. You step out of your home and witness sunlight for the first time in seventy-two hours. You breathe in the fresh oxygen. Ahhhhhh! Finally, your ordeal is over.
DAY 14. FUCK! SOMEONE HAS VIDEO!
DAY 15. Repeat the past two weeks. Search for a sturdy rafter in your basement.
Oh, fuck! You took performance-enhancing drugs!
You already know performance-enhancing drugs have the potential to petrify your testicles. But here are ten other things you may not know about them.
1. THE PRESSURE TO TAKE THEM CAN BE ENORMOUS. There is great pressure in professional sports to take illicit substances that can help you become faster, stronger, and douchier. After all, the league minimum salary in most sports is only in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s not enough money to live an unnecessarily opulent and shallow lifestyle. You’re going to feel an awful lot of peer pressure when Gary Sheffield comes strolling through that clubhouse wearing an actualsize gold medallion of his own head. Steroids could mean the difference between just scraping by and living in a house with its own rotunda. Is that worth possible side effects such as infertility, severe rectal acne, and making the sport of baseball more interesting? For many, the answer is yes.