Finally, the world knows why the Ravens didn’t sign quarterback Colin Kaepernick. According to former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, it was Kaepernick’s girlfriend’s fault.
“When me and Steve Bisciotti were talking, this is what we were talking about,” Lewis said on Showtime’s Inside The NFL. “We were talking about giving this kid an opportunity to get back in the National Football League. Look, this is what I wanted to share with people. I have been fighting for this kid behind the table like nobody has. . . . I’ve never been against Colin Kaepernick. But I am against the way he’s done it.”
But it’s not just Kaepernick who has contributed to his unemployment. According to Lewis, the last straw in Baltimore came from something Kaepernick’s girlfriend did.
“Then, his girl [Colin Kaepernick’s girlfriend] goes out and put out this racist gesture and doesn’t know we are in the back office about to try to get this guy signed,” Lewis said. “Steve Bisciotti has said it himself, ‘How can you crucify Ray Lewis when Ray Lewis is the one calling for Colin Kaepernick?’”
Lewis apparently is referring to the photo posted by Kaepernick’s girlfriend of Lewis embracing Bisciotti, with a photo of Samuel L. Jackson embracing Leonardo DiCaprio’s slave-owning character in Django Unchained.
“When they called me, it was to say, ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’” Lewis said. “We were going to close the deal to sign him. . . . Steve Bisciotti said, ‘I want to hear Colin Kaeperkick speak to let me know that he wants to play football.’ . . . And it never happens because that picture comes up the next day.”
Lewis made it clear that, absent that image posted by Kaepernick’s girlfriend, Kaepernick would have been a Ravens.
“Then he’s flying him to Baltimore,” Lewis said.
So to summarize, the Ravens had a chance to improve their quarterback situation, they crowdsourced the issue regarding the potential backlash against Kaepernick for his anthem protests of a year ago, and they ultimately didn’t sign him because his girlfriend -- not his wife or mother or sister, his girlfriend -- posted an image on Twitter in response to Ray’s nonsensical ramblings on FS1 about Kaepernick?
I suspect Ray thought his explanation would make the situation better. It actually makes the situation worse. If Lewis is telling the truth, an NFL franchise actually spurned a player not because of something he did but because of something his girlfriend did.
If it’s true, it’s lame. If it’s cover for the broader reluctance to risk riling up portions of the fan base, it’s even more lame -- because it’s more evidence of the BS that has been propagated for months to justify Kaepernick’s unemployment.