Peter King: Vol. 9

A decent week for Pete until the final e-mail of his Tuesday mail-bag.

From Joey, of Santiago, Chile: "Do you hear much talk around the league about a possible link between the resurgence of Ray Lewis and performance-enhancing drugs? I don't mean to gossip, but it seems like a few years ago people were talking about how Lewis had lost a step, and now the talk is all about how he's back and his incredible staying power over the years I suppose part of my suspicion has to do with what seems to me to be the quite low incidence of discovery of performance-enhancing drugs in the NFL more generally...."

[Pete has been HEAVING praise at Lewis all year so I expected a "Hey, he hasn't tested positive for anything as far as any of us know, so I can only assume he is clean" response, and that would have been the end of the exchange. But...]

I have been around Ray Lewis a lot over the past few years. Say what you want about Lewis. I know a lot of people don't like him, either because of the murder case in Atlanta or because they think he's too much of a showman on the field before and during the game. Here's what I know: He respects the game.

[Between the juxtaposition of "too much of a showman on the field" and "He respects the game," and how the PED accusation somehow feels like a more serious charge than "possible involvement in a murder," this is a great retort. And is it such a stretch to think that someone who is willing to plead guilty to obstruction of justice to avoid murder and aggravated assault charges would take PEDs to be good at football for an extra season or two? I'm not saying he is taking PEDs, but to dismiss a checkered history of decision-making simply because the guy goes all-out in training camp doesn't seem to carry water. Just say that there is no evidence that points to his guilt (in this instance!) and move on.]