Sharpe Comes to Lewis’ ‘Defense’

The Ray Lewis story was simmering down until Baltimore tight end Shannon Sharpe reignited it Wednesday.

He walked up behind Lewis, put his hands on his shoulders and delivered a monologue meant to be a defense that did more harm than good when Sharpe mentioned mass-murderer Ted Bundy, former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth and the sight of Lewis in a prison uniform and shackles.

“This is a great guy. I wish you all could know this guy personally and look at him in a different light than the media has exploited him to be,” Sharpe said.

“He admitted he made a mistake. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it 1,000 times: If he had not been Ray Lewis, if he had not been an all-pro player, Ray Lewis would have never, ever, ever been implicated. . . .

“They took a longer time to charge Ted Bundy, who killed 30 people. It took ‘em, what, 24 hours to charge this man. Whether or not they knew he did it or not, they had Ray Lewis. So they say, ‘If we get Ray Lewis, if we don’t get anybody else, guess what we got? We got Ray Lewis.’ They made a fatal mistake.

“You know what [the Baltimore Ravens] got? We got the defensive player of the year. And I just wish all the media--all 2,700 of you, would play up him being defensive player of the year, him being the best defensive player in the entire NFL, with the same passion, with the same prejudice, as you run that.

“That’s all he asks: Give him a fair statement. We can’t get none of that. They ran it over and over again about the orange coveralls on TV. The man couldn’t comb his hair. In shackled and leg irons. Give him the same kind of press about being defensive player of the year. Give him the same kind of press for being the player of the year. He is the best player in football, bar none.”

Sharpe also said incorrectly Lewis had been “exonerated of all charges.” Although murder charges were dropped, Lewis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor obstruction of justice.

“Listen, if they thought they had something on this man--you don’t plead with a man that you think committed double murder, I can assure you,” Sharpe said. “Did they do that with Rae Carruth? . . .

“They pleaded this man. You know why? They know they didn’t have a case. They knew they made a mistake, but they could not come out and say it publicly that they made a mistake.”

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Baltimore quarterback Trent Dilfer’s return to Raymond James Stadium on Tuesday was a poignant one.

“After the team picture, we were walking off and I said, ‘Guys, I’m going to take this in for a second,’ ” said Dilfer, who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for six seasons before losing his job last season.

“I sat on the 30-yard line, looked around for two or three minutes, and it was like a movie with flashing memories. Mostly good. I looked up where my family used to sit. I looked in the end zone where the kids I would buy tickets for sat. It was the first time I really looked around.”

Someone who knew about Dilfer’s well-functioning tear ducts asked if he cried.

Dilfer smiled.

“A little bit, yeah.”

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Giant defensive end Michael Strahan on his gap-tooth grin:

“We’re going to have a gap-tooth convention. . . . Lauren Hutton is the most famous. I thank her for making gap-tooth fashionable.

“Hopefully, I can take it to another level for all the gap-tooth people in the world. We have Madonna, David Letterman. You better watch out for all of us.”