Does anyone understand what he's trying to say in the first paragraph?

Ditto on the second paragraph?

"I think it would be very selfish of me to even try to comment on anything without trying to create something that I probably would be making up"

What?

Could this guy be more of a narcissist?
Is it me or did he try and turn this around and make it about him?

I think this is just a very good example of Ray trying to be Ray, and saying something for public consumption, but not really being able to say how he feels inside, because it doesn't fit the mold of the typical, macho football player stereotype. Particularly for the "fraternity" of former players from the U. of Miami, this seems to be a very difficult time. There has always been a certain brash arrogance with the U. players, as if they were indestructible; suddenly, they are forced to realize just how human and vulnerable they are.

I'm not making apologies for Ray here. I just think he is as shaken by the death of Sean Taylor as everyone else who knew Sean. Add to that the poor year the Ravens have had, the erosion of his skills with age and all the rest, and you have a man who has been saying "WTF?" to himself for weeks, and now this.

It's not an easy time for anyone. Even Ray Lewis should get a pass this time.

How charming.... coming from a guy who obstructed justice to protect some of his "boys" after they shot and killed a guy at the Super Bowl. Ray Lewis is probably the LAST person who should be commenting on the tragedy of Sean Taylor's death.

greg,

I got the same impression reading it.

Definitely a heavy use of the pronoun "I" in those paragraphs.

I'm not kidding but WTF, go back and read it again, and it gets worse. Not once does he say ONE THING about what a tragic event this was, not once does he mention Taylors family, child, anything like that. He turns this into something about him. Unbelievable!!!

"To think about anything else, really, outside of trying to find a way to really deal with my personal feelings, I think it would be very selfish of me to even try to comment on anything without trying to create something that I probably would be making up"

Read this one sentence, and see if you can decipher what he was talking about.

I think he's saying that he doesn't want to say something just to say something. He doesn't want to be selfish and say something that has no meaning, because he doesn't know what to say (other than talk about himself).

But yeah, I agree...he just talks about himself the whole time. Kinda strange

For me, as a man, to try to comment on what Ray Lewis said, would for me, as a man, be something that I, as a man, might be making up. And then it would be hard for me, as a man, to look up to myself as the man I am.

And when I, being me as a man, say, "me" and "I," what I mean as a man is...well... me.

Have I mentioned me?

See, I thought he was trying to say something to the effect that he felt bad that guys like Sean Taylor looked up to him and the whole incident in Atlanta, and he knows that he's contributed to that whole high-flying lifestyle.

Ray talks a lot of gibberish, but I think he feels truly bad about the loss. He's not terrible articulate here, but I think his grief is real. And a LOT of people's grief is tied up in their own mortality, so I don't think that's an exceptionally selfish reaction.