Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis believes there will be an increase in criminal activity if the NFL lockout lasts into the regular season. And he’s not talking about crime committed by NFL players.
Lewis told ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio that he thinks there’s a segment of the population that will be at risk of turning to criminal activity if there’s no football to watch on Sundays in the fall.
“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.”