ESPN Defends Hiring Ray Lewis as Analyst

By: Taren Vaughan

Ray Lewis goes down in history as one of the best linebackers professional football has ever seen. Not only did Ray Lewis deliver punishing hits to opponents on the football field, his ability to hype up his teammates before and during games through his motivational speeches was one thing that always sticks out in the minds of true football fanatics. Before officially saying goodbye to the game that he loves so dearly, Ray Lewis went out with a bang as he helped the Baltimore Ravens to another Super Bowl win against the San Francisco 49ers this year. Ravens fans were celebrating for days over the win and Ray’s teammates were happy that they could send him out in style. But not everybody was showing Ray Lewis love over the victory as Wes Welker’s wife ripped him to shreds in a Facebook post that she later apologized for, bringing up Ray Lewis’ personal life and legal troubles that he faced years ago after being linked to a double murder.

Many of those who responded to her rant thought that her comments were of poor taste. Yet that hasn’t stopped more good news from pouring in for Ray Lewis as he was recently offered an analyst position with ESPN. And the news of Ray joining the sports network didn’t sit well with some people as they are not letting go of what happened with him in the past.

ESPN senior coordinator producer Seth Markman spoke with USA TODAY sports about their decision to hire Ray Lewis. And he said that they were well aware of Ray’s past and feels that Ray has paid his debt to society over the incident, Markman adding that he thinks Ray is a different person from what he was back then:

“We discussed it. When you hire somebody, you vet their background. We feel the situation was fully addressed by legal authorities at the time. Ray paid his debt to society.

“We believe in second chances and so does the country. … It was a long time ago. This is a different guy.”