Ray Lewis
Ray Lewis
Raymond Anthony Lewis Jr.is a former American football linebacker who played his entire 17-year career for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He played college football for the University of Miami, and earned All-America honors. Drafted by the Ravens in the first round of the 1996, Lewis was the last active player from the team's inaugural season...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth15 May 1975
CityBartow, FL
CountryUnited States of America
The scheme's got to fit your players. My thing is bashing running backs. That's what I want to get back to, just having fun and letting them deal with me. That's what the 46 package and the defense does.
There's nothing I'm doing to my body that a regular person is not doing to theirs outside of just running into somebody at full speed.
LaDainian Tomlinson . He has every aspect of a running back: speed, quickness, power, agility, the cutback, the breakaway ... He has every aspect of what a running back needs. He's special, man.
In an era that's run on free agency, everybody's going where the dollars are. They go after the dollars and they forget that the game will always come down to brotherhood.
I've never stopped loving the game since day one. If it were a job to me it would be very hard for me to get up in the morning. And why leave something that you can never come back to? Realistically, whether you accept it or not, you only get one wave in this journey. Run at it as hard as you can.
The more you know about your opponents, the more you learn how to beat them. Where the holes open to run through, blocking schemes, even down to player tendencies and what hand they like to carry the ball with.
Outside of these doors, it is the real world. Someone tries to get you to do something wrong, run.
Let me explain my job very simply: My job is to line up five, seven, 10 yards in front of a man and run into him at full speed.
That hurts our league and the Falcons, and I feel for him. He's my friend, and he'll be back. I'll call him and give him encouragement.
It's always tough, because then that's when you have to humble yourself and you've got to take coaching and you have to do whatever they tell you to do. Whether it takes away from your game or it helps your game, just deal with it. That's what I did. It didn't alter how I prepared, it didn't alter my passion for the game. But at the same time, it alters how dominant I can be in this game.
That's big, to come out of here 1-1 instead of sitting home this week 0-2. That's hard. It's hard for anybody to come out of that hole.
You're dealing with one of the most prolific passers in all of the National Football League for the last 10, 15 years. Understanding that, you have to respect what he can do in this game.
Probably what Jonathan's seeing that I'm seeing, now that I'm older, is that I can read the guards, read the tackles, read the backfield, ... As a young guy, that's probably what he's looking at, more of my position, how I'm always in position to strike.
Peyton comes to the line, and he checks to a pass or a run, and I come to the line, and I check from a blitz to a zone, ... I think it's great for the fans to see, but it's actually more stressful when you're on the field, because you're actually trying to figure out truly their next move. He's good at it.