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Bengals coach Marvin Lewis made a stir a few weeks ago when he said Bengals players are "profiled" by police. He then retracted that statement and claimed that he wasn't using the word "profiled" to mean what it usually means in the context of police stopping citizens.

Now D'Anthony Batiste, a reserve lineman for the Carolina Panthers, is claiming he was racially profiled, and he's not going to back down. In fact, Batiste has previously worked as a deputy in Louisiana, and he says it's his experience as a police officer that informs his belief that his race led to him being targeted.

In March, police searched Batiste's car and found the service weapon from his days as a deputy with the Lafayette (La.) Parish Sheriff's Office. He was arrested on a concealed weapons charge, but last week a Mecklenburg County judge threw out the charges against Batiste, saying police had pulled Batiste over for a window tint violation as a pretext to search the car.

"When the arrest happened, I called some of my supervisors back in Louisiana," Batiste told The (Rock Hill) Herald after leaving the courtroom Friday. "As soon as I'd explain it, all of them said 'D, something's not right about this.' We're all kind of under the impression I was arrested for driving while black."

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department spokeswoman Julie Hill responded that Batiste's arrest was not racially motivated and that the department had made window tint violations a high priority because windows that are too dark can put police officers in danger when they approach a car.

Although Batiste is far from a household name -- he's never played in a regular season game and might not make the Panthers' roster this year -- his status as both a professional athlete and a police officer gives him a unique opportunity to make an issue of racial profiling. When Lewis spoke up on the issue, he did so hastily and backtracked quickly. Batiste sounds measured in his comments and willing to stand by them.

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