Ray Lewis Brings Together 'Legends of the Game' at Super Bowl in Miami

By Patrick Ragazzo

Ray Lewis is still the center of the attention.

The Baltimore Ravens Hall of Fame middle linebacker is in Miami for his upcoming first annual “Century Celebration,” event benefiting the Ray of Hope Foundation at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Friday, Jan. 31, to celebrate the legends of the game to kickoff Super Bowl weekend.

Lewis started this fundraising event to celebrate and bring together various NFL legends from the league’s Top 100 list and Hall of Fame fraternity, who changed the game of football such as Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, Lawrence Taylor, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, Rod Woodson, Emmitt Smith, Eric Dickerson, Ed Reed among others, who will be in attendance. All proceeds go to Lewis’s Ray of Hope foundation, which helps families dealing with hardship.

“I wanted to honor all the legends, who made this game into what it is today. All of us to start appreciating each other because we don’t control when we leave this earth,” said Lewis in reference to the tragic loss of his good friend Kobe Bryant, Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gia, and the other seven victims who passed away on Sunday.

“(We only get) One chance in life. Look at what Earl Campbell, Tony Dorsett and all these other guys have gone through (health wise). It’s just a celebration that brings us all together to celebrate our legacies,” said Lewis, who hopes to transform this event into the official Super Bowl party. “It will be the most amazing thing for all of us to see each other and host our own event. It’s so exciting that we all get to do something together.

“The NFL has a very unique impact on the world. We’ve shown them that you can overcome adversities such as racism and other major obstacles in life."

Speaking of the Super Bowl, Lewis played in two and won both of them as he was kind enough to share his fondest memories from the biggest games he endured over the course of his 17-year career.

“It’s really not one fond memory (for me), it’s the overall ride we went on,” said Lewis. “The relationships I had with my teammates made it special.”

“I remember walking up to Rod Woodson in the Super Bowl pregame (Super Bowl XXXV) and we were inspired. I told him “I will break my back before losing this game,” we had each other no matter what.”

Lewis and the Ravens defense didn’t give up an offensive touchdown in the Super Bowl with the Giants lone score coming from Ron Dixon’s 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

Lewis became the second defensive MVP in Super Bowl history recording five tackles and four pass deflections, one of which resulted in an interception by Chris McAlister. The Ravens defense intercepted Giants quarterback Kerry Collins four times in the game including a pick six, while holding him to an individual postseason career worst QB rating of 7.1.

“We were confident enough. That whole playoff run we went all four-games allowing only touchdown,” said Lewis when reflecting on the dominance of the 2000 Ravens defense.

“We found the formula. When you can dominate the game rushing your front four you can control things. Tony Siragusa, Sam Adams, Pete Boulware, it was the perfect defensive formula with playmakers at every level.”

This unit is considered one of the best defenses of all-time giving up the least amount of rushing yards in a season at 970 total (60.6 per game), which is 186 yards lower than the previous record. Their run defense surrendered a mere 2.7 yards per carry and five rushing touchdowns all year.

“We used to dare offenses to run the ball on us. Our rule was to beat your man and then go get the ball.”

This defense collectively held opponents to the least amount of total points ever in a season allowing 165 in 16 games, which is still a league record. They also forced an NFL leading 49 turnovers.

Not only did Lewis and the defense lead the Ravens to their first playoff appearance in franchise history, but the city of Baltimore had not seen it’s football team in the playoffs since the 1977 Colts won the AFC Eastern division title.

The Ravens were loaded with talent on this great defense led by the Defensive Player of the year in Lewis, plus defensive linemen Sam Adams and Tony Siragusa, linebackers Pete Boulware and Jamie Sharper, and defensive backs Rod Woodson and Chris McCallister. Under head coach Brian Billick, the defense was commanded by several future NFL head coaches in Marvin Lewis (defensive coordinator), Rex Ryan (defensive line), Mike Smith (defensive line/defensive assistant, and Jack Del Rio (linebackers).

However, their dominance on defense did not carry over to the other side of the ball as the Ravens offense struggled to put the ball in the end zone. At one point, they went five consecutive games from weeks 5-9, without scoring an offensive touchdown. Had it not been for All-Pro kicker Matt Stover winning them games with his leg, they would have been 0-5 during this stretch.

This sparked head coach Brian Billick to make a change at quarterback benching veteran Troy Banks in favor of former Buccaneers top draft pick Trent Dilfer. Once Dilfer took over, the Ravens would lose his first start, but shortly after they would catch fire on their way to six consecutive wins which capped off their Super Bowl championship.

Fast forward twelve years later in 2012 when Lewis was dealing with a torn right triceps, which caused him to miss more than two months of the regular season. Luckily, he returned just in time for the Ravens immaculate playoff run led by quarterback Joe Flacco, who Lewis believes is a Hall of Famer after the signal caller earned the Super Bowl MVP award. He also believes the recently retired Eli Manning is a lock for the Hall of Fame, winning two Super Bowl MVPS against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

Along the way of his last NFL season, Lewis was playing through a brutal torn triceps injury, which he described as “the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Lewis told me it felt like fighting a war with one arm and despite this significant physical limitation, the linebacker still amazingly racked up 51 tackles in the postseason, which was good for the most ever in a four-game stretch in NFL history.

“It was all mental. The one side of my body would go numb if you caught me in the wrong block (due to the injury),” said Lewis. “But leadership is about leading my example.”

“When I took my brace off, I couldn’t hold it up with my arm. I tried playing without it but couldn’t do it because of the pain.”

“It was a weird fight that taught me so much mentally. I focused on putting my guys in the right position to make plays,” said Lewis who says playing hurt forced him to increase his instruction by coaching up his younger teammates who had “fresh legs.”

The Ravens ultimately achieved their goal by knocking off the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII by a score of 34-31, in what would be Lewis’s final game in the NFL.

This year's Ravens team has eight players that were part of the last Ravens' championship in 2013 — right guard Marshal Yanda, defensive back/linebacker Anthony Levine, cornerback Jimmy Smith, linebackers Josh Bynes and Pernell McPhee, kicker Justin Tucker, long-snapper Morgan Cox and punter Sam Koch.

Unlike the 2000 and 2012 teams, this year's Ravens fell short in the playoffs with a 28-12 loss to the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round. There were some early comparisons to those teams when the 2019 Ravens were riding a 12-game winning streak into the playoffs.

Following his retirement, Lewis has obviously noticed the growing changes throughout the game regarding their player safety rules and increased penalties for illegal hits.

“It’s hard to play defense with all of these rules,” said Lewis. In 3-5 years, we might have to start playing flag football. Even in the Pro Bowl, they just grab the guys (instead of tackling) with the ball in that game, we might have to change the rules.”

“I think you make the game safer by feeding them (the players) the right things and getting them tested every 3 weeks, or once a year by giving them brain scans.”

“You’re trying to appease the audience by penalizing guys for doing their job. It’s almost like taking the jab out of boxing. A linebacker’s position is to make guys pay for coming across the middle. It’s a totally different game now.”

Lewis ended his career as a two-time Super Bowl champion, a Super Bowl MVP, two-time Defensive Player of the year, 13-time Pro Bowler, seven-time first team All-Pro, three-time second team All-Pro, and was named to the 2000’s All-Decade team, along with earning the 18th best ranked player on the NFL’s All-Time Top 100 list.

Lewis was inducted into the Ravens Ring of Honor and the Pro Football Hall of Fame 2018.

Twitter: @RagazzoReport