Racial Ray: Lewis Says Titans Ousting McNair Was About Race

Steve McNair used to play for the Tennessee Titans. After a particularly ugly off-season standoff, McNair was actually banned from the Titans workout facility, and eventually traded to the Ravens. Ray Lewis believes that had something to do with the Titans being racist:

"I don't ever want to turn it into a black-white issue," Lewis told ESPN's Ed Werder in an interview scheduled to be run on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown (11 a.m. ET). "But it would really puzzle me, seriously, if anybody would ever tell Brett Favre ... if anybody would ever tell Peyton Manning not to walk into the Indianapolis facility.

I like that. "I don't want to make it about race, but that's exactly what I'm about to do." That's like me saying, "You know, I don't want to make this about murder, but Ray Lewis put a knife in someone until they died." I would just never say that, because it's wrong.

I think Ray's wrong here. And believe me, I'm not the kind of guy who takes accusations of racism lightly. I think they do exist a lot of times when people don't realize it. But I've thought about it, and I don't think this is one of those cases.

I can't see that happening to Peyton Manning or Brett Favre, either, but I've got two different reasons for it. First, those guys are legends. McNair, while he was very good with the Titans, I think falls short of legend status. And secondly, I can't think of any team doing that, and the fact that the Titans did it to begin with was a classless, unnecessary, spiteful, and moronic thing to do. And I think they realize that now.

And the Titans/Oilers franchise, as they'll tell you, have a pretty good history with African-American quarterbacks, from Warren Moon to Vince Young.