If Lewis Is Super Star, Where Will Disney Go?

What if Sunday’s Super Bowl produced a hero that Walt Disney Co. didn’t want to go to Disney World?

That’s possible if Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis, who pleaded guilty in June to obstruction of justice in connection with two stabbing deaths, stars in a Raven victory.

“It’s always been based on the player who is noteworthy for his achievement on the field, based on stats, and the hero of the game,” said Rick Sylvain, spokesman for Disney’s Super Bowl promotion. “But we’re not going to get any deeper into the selection process.”

The promotion, which has run after every Super Bowl since 1987, is filmed on the field immediately after the game. A narrator asks the Super Bowl’s top player, “Hey, [name of player], you’ve just won the Super Bowl. What are you going to do next?”

The player responds: “I’m going to Disney World.”

Lewis, the NFL’s defensive player of the year this season, was initially charged with two counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub after last January’s Super Bowl.

Prosecutors later dropped the murder charges after he agreed to testify against the two men who were with him that night, and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice. The NFL fined Lewis a record $250,000.

The player selected for the commercial is not necessarily the official Super Bowl MVP, selected by fifteen on-site media members and fans on the NFL’s official Internet site, https://superbowl.com, representing about 20% of the vote. Sylvain said the Disney player is selected by a panel that includes Disney executives watching the game on television, and NFL officials.

The agents for possible candidates are contacted in advance, so Disney can negotiate an appearance fee, Sylvain said. As of Monday, Lewis’ agent, Roosevelt Barnes, said he hadn’t gotten a call from Disney.

Said David Fishof, agent for former New York Giant quarterback Phil Simms, who was paid $75,000 to appear in the first of the “What’s Next?” commercials, “There’s no way Disney, with its squeaky-clean image, is going to let Ray Lewis do this.”