Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Could Ray Lewis be Right?

In January of 2010, we wrote an article on The New Orleans Saints football team. An interesting factoid was found in an article published at ESPN that stated this:
Maybe you use numbers: 84 percent of the televisions in town were tuned to the recent Monday night game against the Patriots. Maybe you use bizarre trends, such as an NOPD cop telling me the 911 calls almost stop when the Saints play and there's been only one murder during a game this year.
Nothing unifies a city like a winning football team. Nothing stops Black people - murders, robbery and assaults are monopolized by Black people in New Orleans - from engaging in crime quite like a winning football team.

But what happens when you remove football - a winning or losing team - from the equation? Ray Lewis, once a suspect in a murder himself, has an idea:
In an interview with ESPN that aired over the weekend, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said that if the NFL lockout results in a lost season, crime rates will increase. “Watch how much crime picks up if you take away our game,” Lewis told ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio. Pressed to explain why, Lewis replied, “There’s nothing else to do Sal.”


Are Americans really so addicted to professional football that its absence will lead people to go on some kind of crime rampage? Or, as Lewis seems to be implying, is it such a potent distraction that it keeps us occupied, and our violent tendencies sated? Better to watch Troy Polamalu knock a guy unconscious than doing it yourself. By that logic, crime rates should increase once the season’s over.

The NFL lockout does seem to be leading to an increase in criminal behavior among one demographic: NFL players. According to the Grio.com’s John Mitchell, arrests among NFL players have spiked during the lockout this spring.


We’ve written about the relationship between sports and crime a number of times, including here, when Dubner took on French political scientist Sebastien Roche and his theory that sport causes crime. More recently, Freakonomics contributor Justin Wolfers reported on a study showing that crime rates spike during college football game days.
Is Ray Lewis, himself a suspect once in murder case in Atlanta, actually stating that unless football is played on Sunday's the streets of the 32 cities that are home to NFL franchises will run with blood?:
“Do this research if we don’t have a season — watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up, if you take away our game,” Lewis said. “There’s too many people that live through us, people live through us. Yeah, walk in the streets, the way I walk the streets, and I’m not talking about the people you see all the time.”

Asked to explain why crime would increase without NFL games, Lewis said: “There’s nothing else to do, Sal.”

Lewis said he hopes that both sides in the labor dispute can put pride and ego aside and consider what their failure to reach an agreement says to the average fan.
“There’s people who are really struggling for real,” Lewis said. “There’s real struggles out there.”

Judging by the empirical evidence offered by New Orleans cops from the Saints run to the Super Bowl, we'd say Lewis might be on to something. We already know the chicken wing industry is going to suffer if the NFL season is not played, and now Ray Lewis has stated the unpleasant truth that would-be gang-bangers, thugs, and criminals will be let loose upon the nation if no season is played.

Conversely, Ray Lewis has finally provided compelling evidence for how the criminal class among us can be pacified and placed into a docile state: year-around football. Lewis plays for the Baltimore Ravens, in a town swamped in Black crime (the "youths" and "teens" written about frequently in The Baltimore Sun committing crime are almost all Black)

Members of the city council had this to say:

“I would hope that it would not increase crime without football. Baltimore is a place where we do have other things for people to enjoy,” said Baltimore City Councilwoman Helen Holton.

Another city councilman says if Ray Lewis is that concerned about the possibility of crime increasing, he should do something about it. He issued a challenge to the linebacker.

“Well, Ray…that’s pretty irresponsible. If you really feel that way, then come on down. We could use your help,” said Councilman Jim Kraft.

All council members agree that the NFL lockout will have a detrimental financial impact in Baltimore and other cities with NFL teams.
Considering that nearly 70 percent of the NFL players are Black, and that a vast majority of these Black athletes come from "tough" upbringings and backgrounds, it's safe to say we should take Lewis' statement as fact. We are talking about a league that sees it's players personify the "Nigga rich" mindset, with first-year players racking up hundreds of thousands in debt. During this lockout, many players have resorted to loan sharks to survive.

Consider that one, unnamed player recently took out a $500,000 loan at 23 percent APR.

Look, our jails are already full of criminals. We are forced to release tens of thousands because we can't pay for them anymore.

For the love of God, listen to Ray Lewis. Unless you want anarchy on fall Sunday afternoons in Baltimore, Washington D.C., New York City, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Atlanta, St. Louis, Green Bay (wait... that city never has crime), Charlotte, Miami, Jacksonville, New Orleans and many others, come to an agreement and have an NFL season.

If not, Ray Lewis has warned us all.




18 comments:

Anonymous said...

At last...a chance to be a first responder in hopes that the idiotic Desiree can read and reflect on what Charles Darwin once said:

“Since the dawn of history the Negro has owned the continent of Africa - rich beyond the dream of poet’s fancy, crunching acres of diamonds beneath his bare black feet. Yet he never picked one up from the dust until a white man showed to him its glittering light. His land swarmed with powerful and docile animals, yet he never dreamed a harness, cart, or
sled. A hunter by necessity, he never made an axe, spear, or arrowhead worth preserving beyond the moment of its use. He lived as an ox, content to graze for an hour. In a land of stone and timber he never sawed a foot of lumber, carved a block, or built a house save of broken sticks and mud. With league on league of ocean strand and miles of inland seas, for four thousand years he watched their surface ripple under the wind, heard the thunder of the surf on his beach, the howl of the storm over
his head, gazed on the dim blue horizon calling him to worlds that lie beyond, and yet he never dreamed a sail.” — Charles Darwin

"

Fayette White Guy said...

LOL, great post. He may be onto something; I just wonder what the blacks are going to do the other 21 hours of the day.

One of my fall Sundays will in fact be spent in Green Bay. I will give you a report of what I see.

Anonymous said...

Ray delivers the ultimate threat. He's telling white people that if the white owners don't cave in to the black players' demands, blacks are going to rob, rape and kill them. Mark my words: the players are setting the table for 0bama to step in and solve the impasse so that he may take credit. And white owners might very well have their franchises stolen from them much like GM's and Chrysler's bond holders did.

Old White Jim said...

With any luck, maybe a lot of bored Blacks will spend their time like this:

http://www.kaotic.com/9211_Old-Guy-Delivers-Wicked-Knockout-Punch--Did-You-Tell-Me-To-Fk-Me.html

Anonymous said...

What? This stupid fucking nigger - Lewis is THE epitome of a nigger - going to kill someone else if he can't play?

Fuck the nfl. Thug ball.

Joe

Anonymous said...

I have a suggestion for a new SBPDL: Black Politicians getting busted.

The black politician is the new criminal of america, just look up all of the embezzlement cases going on recently.

Anonymous said...

"Pressed to explain why, Lewis replied, 'nothing else to do Sal.'"

People need to get better hobbies.

Anonymous said...

"Pressed to explain why, Lewis replied, 'nothing else to do Sal.'"

God forbid they should read a fucking book, or spend time with their kids, or find a job.

Anonymous said...

Football games only last several hours, that leaves plenty of time for negroes to commit crime, this is pure stupidity.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of hobbies...

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/pack-of-teens-trash-dunkin-donuts-20110523-lgf

missbosslady said...

Lewis is a friggin moron! Nothing else to do!?! WTF!

Hey Ray, here's a partial list for ya:

Home improvement job
take the kids to the park
go to church
read/write
help a friend/neighbor
volunteer to help the eldery
wash your car/clean your house
work on a hobby
take your dog to the park
go to the beach

I think Anon @ 4:56 is right though, this is nothing but a veiled threat to the white owners. Cough up more dough for the already over paid players or else they and their kind will wreak havoc on society, like they do the other six days of the week.

God, I am soooo sick of black atheletes!

Thugs in uniforms.

Anonymous said...

sports = entertainment = escapism = not facing reality head on = why this country is backsliding.

Stephen said...

Down with the Negro Felon League!

Anonymous said...

If the NFL had turned into the NBA in terms of its racial composition,I'd guarantee you not as many people would watch and the spot wouldn't be as popular.

Anonymous said...

Any Ray Lewis-style NFL fans planning on committing "evil" on my street are going to have to deal with Commissioner Mossberg.

B. Herder said...

The solution is quite simple.. Have college games on Saturdays *and* Sundays. It's not like there aren't enough schools to fill time slots, and I'd much rather watch college ball anyway ;^)

Anonymous said...

I stopped watching bakkabawl 15 years ago. I stopped watching feetsbawl about 10 years ago. I only reason I watched was because I gambled. Without gambling, what's the point of watching a bunch of grown men chasing a ball?

Anonymous said...

"If the NFL had turned into the NBA in terms of its racial composition,I'd guarantee you not as many people would watch and the spot wouldn't be as popular"

It's not much different in terms of racial composition; 80% vs. 70%. Football players wear helmets however, so you can't see their faces. People can rationalize anything. The current popularity of NFL football has more to do with the dumbing down of America more than anything else.