Ray Lewis claims Ravens didn't sign Kaepernick due to girlfriend's tweet
Ray Lewis offered some unusual intel about the Baltimore Ravens' decision to pass on signing Colin Kaepernick, blaming the quarterback's girlfriend, Nessa Diab.
On Showtime's "Inside The NFL" on Tuesday, Lewis discussed his communication with Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti during the team's talks with Kaepernick.
Lewis said the Ravens were on track to sign Kaepernick - adding that he'd been fighting for the quarterback behind the scenes - before Diab posted a "racist gesture," which was supposedly the tweet below. The tweet featured a photo from "Django Unchained" that showed a loyal slave hugging a white slave owner, comparing it to a photo of Lewis hugging Bisciotti.
🎯 @raylewis pic.twitter.com/N9k7nDgmDh
— NESSA (@nessnitty) August 3, 2017
The day before Diab sent the tweet, Lewis had posted a video online telling Kaepernick to focus on football rather than his social activism.
"If you do nothing else, young man, get back on the football field and let your play speak for itself," Lewis said in August. "And what you do off the field, don't let too many people know because they are going to judge you anyway, no matter what you do, no matter if it's good or bad."
Lewis said Tuesday the Ravens would have signed Kaepernick the next day had it not been for Diab's tweet.
"Then, (Diab) goes out and put out this racist gesture and doesn’t know we are in the back office about to try to get this guy signed," Lewis said, according to Deadspin's Timothy Burke. "Steve Bisciotti has said it himself, 'How can you crucify Ray Lewis when Ray Lewis is the one calling for Colin Kaepernick?'…
"When (the Ravens) called me, it was to say, 'Yes' or 'No.' … We were going to close the deal to sign him … Steve Bisciotti said, 'I want to hear Colin Kaeperkick speak to let me know that he wants to play football.'… And it never happens because that picture comes up the next day."
Lewis does not officially work for the Ravens' personnel department, so he may not have been privy to how close the team really was to signing Kaepernick. However, his story does seem to provide another example that suggests Kaepernick is not unemployed simply due to his play on the field, which some have suggested.