By William Plummer
ATLANTA FALCONS STAR ANDRE RISON still appears in shock as he sits at the edge of a deserted football field in Suwanee, Ga. Just now, says Rison, the only way he could imagine finding any peace would be by going out to the 50-yard line, lying down and waiting for the night. "Then when it gets real quiet," he says, "I think I'd be able to hear her voice. I still love her, you know."
It is hard to believe, but the voice Rison, 27, longs to hear belongs to his girlfriend, Lisa Lopes, 23, a singer with the hot hip-hop group TLC, who just four days earlier had shown Rison anything but tender loving care. In the early hours of June 9, after they had fought and Andre walked out, Lopes allegedly put a match to cardboard in the upstairs whirlpool bath of Rison's million-dollar Atlanta mansion, destroying it, along with just about everything Andre owned. Then for good measure, she reportedly smashed his Toyota truck and two Mercedes-Benz cars.
According to her lawyer Darryl Cohen, Lopes -- who has been charged with felony arson and is out on $75,000 bail -- had been beaten and abused. "Lisa is in fear of her life," says Cohen of the rapper whose debut album, Oooooooh . . . on the TLC Tip, which sold 2.8 million copies, featured songs about standing up to macho men.
Rison flatly denies ever abusing her. "It hurts me," he says, "because I'm not like that. We did everything together -- shopped, cooked, laughed, cried, went to nightclubs, parks, functions . . ."
One of the top receivers in pro football, Rison met Lopes in March 1993. "It didn't matter to me that she was a celebrity," he says. "It was just her that I loved." Even before the fire, however, the couple had a combustive relationship. Last September, Rison was arrested in a supermarket parking lot for allegedly beating Lopes and firing a handgun to discourage others from intervening. Charges were later dropped.
She won't talk to the press. But her mother, Wanda, who reared Lisa in Philadelphia, describes her as a "real caring person." Wanda denies that her daughter has a hot temper. But on June 15, lawyer Cohen announced that Lisa had "voluntarily entered a rehabilitation program." A person close to Lopes said it was for alcohol abuse.
Andre, meanwhile, feels a sense of loss. Sitting beside the field in Suwanee, he is talking about Lisa and his tattoos. "This one we designed together," he says, pointing to a snake surrounding a musical note.
"I have cried a lot," Andre continues. "But I can't say that I've shed one tear for the house. I can replace a house, but I can't replace the life I had, or a certain girl."
CAPTION: Lopes (with TLC's T-Boz Watkins, left, and Chilli Thomas) is known for wearing a condom eye patch.
CAPTION: "The house was a dream for a kid like me who grew up in the inner city," says Rison, whose mansion was in one of Atlanta's best neighborhoods. "But I don't ever want to go back there again."
CAPTION: Lopes is escorted from Fulton County police headquarters after turning herself in on June 10.
CAPTION: "People say I'm crazy," says Rison, whose shoulder is tatooed "L.A." for Lisa and Andre. "But I can't get my mind off her."
June 27, 1994