Baltimore Ravens

Ray Lewis: Too big, too well-dressed to be involved in 2000 murders

Published Oct. 22, 2015 5:11 p.m. ET

foxsports

Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis has an interesting narrative for explaining away his role in the January 2000 encounter that left two men dead after a Super Bowl party in Atlanta -- he was apparently too nicely dressed.

Lewis, who was convicted of obstruction of justice in the case, proclaimed his innocence in his new book "I Feel Like Going On." Lewis says he was simply too well dressed that night to be getting involved with whom he described as "gangbangers."

Via TMZ.com:

"Remember, I was dressed out, had my jewelry on, my fine mink coat. I wasn't about to start mixing it up looking like that. That's the general rule of thumb when you're doing the town and looking good. The nicer you're dressed, the less inclined you are to get in a fight -- that is, if you're even inclined in that way to begin with."

"There I was, all dressed out in my mink coat, my fine suit. Dude dresses like that, he's not looking for a fight. How I was dressed, it made no sense with what went down, those shots being fired, all of that. Forget what kind of statement my clothes might have made. Forget that I might have been a little loud, over the top. Point is, when you're dressed like that, you're off to the sidelines, and here were these gangbangers stepping out to us from the shadows, looking to make trouble -- but it was trouble we drove right past."

Besides his splendid attire, Lewis offered up another explanation on ESPN's SportsCenter on Wednesday, saying he was simply too large to get in any altercation with the two victims.

"First of all, they’re four or five freaking inches shorter than me, right? Why would I fight somebody anyway?” said Lewis, who was listed at 6-foot-1 and 240 pounds during his playing days, via the New York Daily News.

Lewis, who is also employed by ESPN as an NFL analyst, added that he thinks about the fateful night "every day of my life," but said the incident had more to do with his name and skin color than anything else.

Watch the full clip here courtesy of ESPN.com: