If you take away football, you increase crime. Joe Thomas will be robbing banks. Joshua Cribbs will be getting into knife fights. Phil Dawson will assault his neighbor. Why? Because without football, there's nothing else to do. That would be true if you listen to the Ravens' Ray Lewis, who conducted a one-on-one interview with ESPN's Sal Paolantonio.
When asked why he thought crime would increase if the NFL doesn't play games this year, Lewis said: "There's nothing else to do Sal."
"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 stated.
When I read the article the first time, I thought it was an odd statement for Lewis to make. I'm glad I wasn't the only one, as Peter King thought the same thing in his latest Monday Morning Quarterback:
I don't understand Ray Lewis' logic. I respect Ray Lewis, and I also do not travel in his circles. I don't know who has told Lewis the crime rate by the general populace in America is going to go up if there's no pro football this fall, but someone has, and he's buying it.It's a nice headline, but I'm not buying it. I suppose it could happen, but unless we get burglars and thieves saying they did it because the NFL wasn't on TV on fall Sundays this year, I'm not buying what Lewis is selling.