Twenty-four years ago, Shannon Sharpe gave an impassioned — and unexpected — defense of teammate Ray Lewis in advance of Super Bowl XXXV. More recently, Lewis gave and impassions — and unexpected — critique of Sharpe’s media career.
“I’m not surprised,” Lewis said on the PBD Podcast regarding Sharpe’s success as a podcaster. “I’m shocked at his content. . . . I kind of started to watch him and then we kind of went our own separate ways, because I’m like, ‘You’re gonna take that route? I can’t go that route. Never can go that route.’”
What is ‘that route’?
“That route is to become so worldly that you’ve become popular because you’re talking about ignorance,” Lewis said. “A lot of times a lot of these gossip conversations that they’re having and bringing up all this stuff, I’m not gonna do that to nobody. I’m not in the business for that. I’m in life to try to teach people what does it mean to be a better man or give back to the kingdom.
“And a lot of times, like, and a lot of guys get in trouble with these podcasts and things, man, because everybody wants the follower. Everybody wants to be popular, Everybody wants to make money. But that’s a tightrope into what you call influence and popularity. The devil has the ability to make you popular. God has the ability to give you influence that when people see you, they see an image of him.
“And that’s the thing for me that started to switch with not just Shannon, but just a couple of people. I’m like, ‘Wow, you will switch out like that? Really?’ And I would never, ever. Why? Because of the respect that I have for my mother, my daughters, my granddaughters, life, period.
“I think men, given these new platforms, we’ve overrode what the platform is actually for. The platform is supposed to help somebody find a new direction. We don’t help. Everybody’s just gets on. Like everybody’s talking now. Everybody got a podcast. Everybody is the new marriage coach. Everybody’s the new relationship coach. And ain’t nobody coaching themselves, because if you were coaching your yourself, when it says, ‘Power of life and death is found in the tongue,’ then go back and check out a couple of your episodes and ask yourself, ‘Do you give life, or do you give death? And that’s why me personally, yeah, I kind of do my own thing, Stay in my own lane.”
He exited that lane in a big way to share his views about his former teammate’s media career. It’ll be interesting to see if Sharpe, who has plenty to say about plenty of things, will have anything to say about what Lewis said.