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Overplay on Ray Billick's tone turned Lewis story into an even bigger deal
Updated: Tuesday January 23, 2001 8:09 AM
TAMPA, Fla. -- Super Bowl XXXV has its first raging maelstrom. And it's only Monday. In an impassioned pre-emptive strike, designed to both staunchly defend Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and discourage the media this week from delving into the nearly year-old story of his double-murder charges, Baltimore head coach Brian Billick sternly lectured reporters on the facts surrounding the case and questioned the motives behind some of the anticipated coverage. "As much as some of you want to, we are not going to retry this [case]," said Billick, turning his attention to the Lewis story unprompted, in the opening minutes of his first news conference of Super Bowl week. "It's inappropriate and you're not qualified. "Ray will address this [Tuesday at media day], in the way he sees fit. And that will be the end of it in terms of our conversation regarding it. ... And those who wish to embellish it, not to shed new information but to simply sensationalize it for their own purposes, personally I think it's reprehensible [and] unprofessional."
Using a tone rarely heard in such a setting, Billick aimed a series of sharp comments at a gathering of about 250 reporters at the Baltimore team hotel. Those comments were apparently sparked by recent stories about the Lewis case in at least two national publications, as well an ESPN report that quoted a relative of one of the victims accusing Lewis of murder. The double-murder charges against Lewis were dropped last spring, and he pled guilty to only a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice for not cooperating with the police's investigation. Lewis is on probation. Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker were stabbed to death in Atlanta in the early morning hours following last year's Super Bowl. Lewis and two of his friends, Joseph Sweeting and Reginald Oakley, were charged with murder, but all three were exonerated and no one has been convicted of the crimes. According to a Ravens team source, Billick was incensed over the weekend that the ESPN report included no one representing either Lewis or the team to remind viewers that the Baltimore star linebacker was not convicted and accepted only a misdemeanor charge. "You can stir it up, talk about it, but you're not going to change the facts," Billick said. "The facts are all charges were dropped against Ray Lewis. There was no plea-bargaining. ... I've advised the players to not engage in conversation whatsoever regarding the sequence of events of a year ago, with regards to Ray. And I don't think you're going to find anybody willing to engage it, at least in regards to my team." Of course, by allowing his first news conference of the week to be dominated by talk of Lewis, and to initiate that talk, Billick all but ensured his words would have just the opposite of the desired effect. Reporters who did not even plan to touch the story in any in-depth way this week left Monday's news conference well aware that they had to hit the topic hard in reporting Billick's offensive. And to be sure, the modest amount of reporters who weren't planning to give much of a listen to Lewis at the Tuesday mob scene called media day -- which will be conducted at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium -- will now begin camping out around Lewis' platform some time late Monday night. Billick's admonitions ensured that Lewis will be the Super Bowl equivalent of must-see TV. Tuesday represents Lewis' first of three required media sessions this week. Billick's comments prompted at least one tense exchange, when a reporter from a Toronto paper pointedly asked the coach what gave him the right to tell the media how to do its job. Momentarily forgotten by the thin-skinned reporter was the fact that the media routinely tells head coaches how to do their jobs. "I'm not telling you how to do your job," Billick said. "I'm simply telling you how we're going to respond to it." When the reporter basically repeated his question, challenging Billick's right to lecture the media, Billick explained his freedom of speech thusly: "It's that I have the podium and you all are here to listen to me. Next question?" Returning again and again to the idea that the Lewis story is an old one, Billick said that some reporters "are in a what I equate to an ambulance-chasing mode," and reasoned that no one is well served by giving the story new life. "I understand the scope of what you all are interested in," Billick said. "We're not naïve enough to not recognize that there's going to be an interest. But I'll be quite frank with you, I'm a little disturbed with the focus that's being brought into it and for the reason it's being brought. ... There are those who decided they want to take on a certain sensational aspect of it. "I don't think it's in the best interest of the family. I don't think it's in the best interest of the league. I don't think it's in the best interest of Ray Lewis, and quite frankly I don't think it's in [the media's] best interest. Because I don't think when you do that, you all come across real well." 
After his news conference ended, Billick was questioned by a small group of reporters about what reports in particular set him off in recent days. He declined to specify. "I understand there are some stories in the works [by people] who apparently are going to pursue some story lines, whether it be with the victim's families," Billick said. "If that is indeed followed through with and all we're going to hear about is that other perspective,...I don't know what the purpose is. You can appreciate us not wanting to engage in that. There are a lot better storylines out there, quite honestly." But whether he likes it or not, Billick may have unwittingly helped guarantee that Lewis and the story of his year-long ordeal continues to get top billing beneath a Super Bowl spotlight that is just starting to crank to life. Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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