‘Prime Time’ Deion Sanders and Andre Rison were once teammates until the former went to the San Francisco 49ers in 1994. After parting ways, they quickly turned into arch-enemies after the two NFL stars threw hands at one another in one particular game, which resulted in Sanders getting fined for punching Rison three times. Post that, things went awry even for Rison in his personal life when his former girlfriend, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, burned down his $1,300,000 mansion.
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The Atlanta wide receiver and Left Eye started dating each other in March 1993. Left Eye was part of the hit R&B trio TLC, who were enjoying tremendous success after the release of their debut record, ‘Ooooooohhh…On the TLC Tip’. The relationship was problematic from the get-go because, after six months of dating, Rison was arrested in a parking lot after allegedly physically abusing Lopes. Hence, it did not take time for the problems to escalate to a much graver level.
Andre Rison’s massive fight with his girlfriend didn’t end well
It was on June 9, 1994, that Lopes’ literally explosive actions came to light after a troublesome night she had with Rison. As per The Boom Box, Rison was out clubbing on June 8 with his friends. Lopes, who then also went out to party with her friends, came home to their shared mansion before Rison. The Michigan Hall of Famer arrived home at 5 a.m., but he wasn’t alone.
He bought himself a lot of shiny sneakers, but none for his girlfriend. Lopes was infuriated that her boyfriend did not buy her any sneakers and welcomed him angrily in the driveway of his luxurious mansion.
Left Eye burning Andre Rison’s house down would have been the biggest story in Twitter history if it existed back then pic.twitter.com/h8CjIWfsxf
— Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) May 20, 2021
Rison had claimed that Lopes was drunk and had a physical altercation with him, landing multiple blows on his face. Finally, he grabbed her and asked her what was wrong. Then Rison allegedly slapped Lopes to calm her down and also did so in self-defence. However, that did not work, and the altercation moved inside the house.
In the mansion, the former wideout allegedly slammed the rapper on the back and sat on her to control her. But that again did not work, and he left his house. When at the NFL star was away, Lopes set his new sneakers on fire in the bathtub which then ended up brining the whole mansion down.
Once a million dollar+ mansion, is now a pile of ash
Things went to the extreme when the fire spread and swallowed the whole house in flames. Rison’s brother claimed that he saw the rapper standing in front of the house while it was getting burned down. When Rison came back to his house, there was just a huge pile of burned material left. On June 10, Lopes turned herself in and was charged with felony arson but was bailed for $75,000 Then, five days later, Left Eye voluntarily went to rehab.
Although Lopes asserted that she did not intend to burn Rison’s house down, she was sentenced to “live at a halfway house and five years probation, in addition to paying a $10,000 fine.”
One would expect such an incident to break the ties between the two individuals, but that did not happen with Andre Rison and Left Eye, as they stayed committed to each other and even had plans of marrying each other. However, their plans did not come true when Left Eye tragically passed away in a car accident in Honduras in 2002 while she was on a spiritual retreat.
