Super Bowl predictions are a dime a dozen. Someone has guessed whether the first play will be a run or pass or whether the coin flip is heads or tails. Predicting the Super Bowl isn’t very hard. There is a fifty-fifty chance to get it right—though some will manage to make a fool of themselves.
I won’t be predicting the game but I am willing to make another prediction. I willing to bet that in the infinite expanse of social media Ray Lewis and his checkered past will be trending.
It’s inevitable. Detractors will latch on to the story of the double murder after Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta that involved Lewis as a reason to root against him. Because in their minds, no one who has ever been involved in a murder has turned his life around.
Lewis’ supporters will cry foul at those critics because he has found God and leads a better life. Lewis appears in more commercials answering questions from little girls than ones where he snarls at the camera. To his supporters everyone who has found God is above reproach.
Sunday will be Lewis’ last NFL game and a day where noise will crowd the air from supporters and critics trying to have the last say on his legacy. After all, the public is the keeper of his legacy.
Ray Lewis doesn’t owe the people anything, though. There is little more he can do except live with the burden of the truth about that January night. If you have never had any faith that people can make a better life for themselves then Lewis is a good place to start.
Lewis isn’t going to care much on Super Bowl Sunday what the world has to say about him and his legacy. When you see a grown man crying and drooling on himself during the Star Spangled Banner you had better think that that is a man secure with who he is.
But they’ll still talk about him. One side wants to make sure our quick-to-forgive society doesn’t prematurely raise Lewis to sainthood while the other side wants to make sure that his past won’t condemn him.
When the talking heads on ESPN are done yelling at each other and the dust settles on Lewis’ career both sides will have their voices heard. No one, not even a popular athlete, is remembered for just the good.
Who wants to take that bet?
Mike Hopey is a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in journalism and media studies. He can be reached at hopey@mail.usf.edu.
