and you can see the drugs, the crime, the decay – and that’s just the Orioles we’re talking about here, folks. (cue: drum roll).
But seriously, Ray Lewis will be active at some level in helping Baltimore as long as this relationship with Steve Bisciotti “ends well.”
I asked Bisciotti about this two years ago and this is still a compelling look at how the owner feels about Ray Lewis:
And you never know how that is going to go. It’s unpredictable. But I’d say it’s 8-5 that the Ravens – and really, Bisciotti himself – will find a way to make Ray Lewis the icon that he rightfully should be, especially if he truly invests of himself in Baltimore.
You can say whatever you want about my partner Brian Billick but his investment in WNST.net was perceived and intended on his part to be involvement in the community in the most grassroots way possible via our medium and knowing where the world was headed in the digital age.
It was paramount to Billick that he stay involved in Baltimore and give something back to a city that has given him a great life.
I can’t imagine that Ray Lewis wants to own WBAL or WJZ, but I do know that he knows a lot about business and scalability. I don’t talk with Ray a lot but when I do it’s about business and Baltimore, that’s for sure.
8
No matter how he feels about me that’s something we’ll always have in common for better or worse. We both love Baltimore.
This stuff is important to him.
He’s become a Cal Ripken kind of iconic figure.
He’s reopening another restaurant.
He’s playing his ass off on the field.
He’s doing national TV commercials.
He’s helping people where he can.
8And he’s building his brand for post-football life.
This little “term paper” over the last few days wasn’t to personally “challenge” Ray Lewis to help make Baltimore better. But I can say that I think it should be a key part of his operating strategy because this is a place he’ll always have and a place where he could always make a living.
But what I’d like to see him do or you think he should do in his post-football life
