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Ray Lewis Calls Labor Strife Battle Of Egos

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Baltimore Ravens linebacker, and former Miami Hurricane, Ray Lewis has dipped his foot into the fight between the NFL owners and the players. Lewis said quite simply, crime will go up if the lockout lingers.

"Do this research if we don't have a season – watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up, if you take away our game," Lewis told ESPN.

Lewis, a former Super Bowl MVP, has been on the wrong side of the law himself. He was once arrested for murder after a fight outside an Atlanta party in 2000. Lewis pled guilty to a charge of obstruction of justice and served a year of probation.

Lewis has since become a locker room leader for the Ravens and has been regarded by some as the conscience of the NFL.

Still, his comment that crime will go up if the NFL doesn't play this season seems like a stretch. It's impossible to prove, only to correlate. But Lewis does understand that "the NFL lockout affects way more than us," according to ESPN.com.

Lewis also correctly broke down the whole labor mess as being essentially a battle of egos between billionaire owners and millionaire players.

"There's no other reason the issue is going on," he said. "That's why I don't get into words and all that other stuff, because it takes away from life ... itself. There's people who are really struggling for real. There's real struggles out there."

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