After the Packers made their second first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Bart Scott provided a candid explanation about how the early aughts Ravens assembled criminals on their roster as an apparent strategic maneuver.
The Packers selected Devonte Wyatt, a defensive tackle out of Georgia, with the 28th-overall pick in the draft. In 2020, Wyatt was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass after having an argument with a woman he lived with on and off. He allegedly kicked her door “multiple times from the hallway, damaging the door and forcing it open,” per UGA police. The charges were dismissed several months later.
Scott, reacting on ESPN Radio’s live draft coverage on Thursday, loved the pick.
“They need to get tough up the middle,” Scott said. “I know why they may have some off-the-field issues, but you have to get some tough guys. Everybody can’t be choir boys.
“When I was with the Ravens, we had to make sure that we had at least two people on the team with a couple felonies, just to make sure our street cred was right, when we had to go into these back alleys and pass some of these dog fights.”
Scott, 41, played for the Ravens from 2002-08.
“Sometimes, you gotta have some people that aren’t choir boys,” he said. “That’s why you had a strong locker room — to keep them in check.”
Host Shae Peppler Cornette interjected, “You’ve gotta be careful with the felony, Bart.”
Nevertheless, he persisted.
“Listen: The funniest sign I’ve ever seen in my life was ’52 + 31 = 10 to 20.’ It was Ray Lewis plus Jamal Lewis equals 10-20 in prison,” Scott said.
In 2000, Ray Lewis pled guilty to obstruction of justice in a case where two of his friends stabbed two men to death during a brawl outside a nightclub in Atlanta during Super Bowl week. Lewis’ friends were cleared of murder charges in the deaths.
In 2004, Jamal Lewis was sentenced to four months in prison after he pled guilty to brokering a cocaine deal between a childhood friend and a government informant in 2000.
“[Ravens linebacker] Terrell Suggs beat a dude with a stop sign coming out of Arizona State, you know what I mean?” Scott continued. “You got to have a couple guys like that. We can clean them up, we can get them counseling, but you definitely gotta have some goon goblins. You’ve got to get a couple.”
“Oh boy,” Cornette sighed.