Ray Lewis joined the hosts of Showtime's Inside The NFL, on Tuesday, September 5. In discussing how the Ravens' pursuit of Colin Kaepernick unraveled, he revealed that the organization was actually very close to bringing the quarter back on board until Kap's girlfriend Nessa Diab openly mocked Lewis and Bisciotti with a racially charged meme on social media.
"I can disagree with how he did it. That should be perfectly fine. Then his girl goes out and puts out this racist gesture, and doesn't know we're in the back office about to try to get this guy to sign," Lewis told hosts Boomer Esiason, Phil Simms, and James Brown. Ultimately, Lewis implied that Kaepernick showing a lack of "fraternity" with him was all that it took to turn Bisciotti off to the idea of offering him a spot in the locker room. Lewis said Bisciotti just couldn't comprehend what would make Kaepernick and Nessa supposedly turn on the Ravens great, who was instrumental in facilitating the talks. "I go to the decision makers. And the decision makers in this one were Steve Bisciotti and Ozzie Newsome. And the only thing that went bad was that image where she tried to make us racist individuals," he then added.
Lewis would agree with Simms' assessment that Baltimore would have been the perfect place for Kaepernick. Under his wing, Lewis bets that he and the other executives would have been able to keep the QB from making the public relations blunders that come with unfiltered interviews and inflammatory fashion statements.
