Once again, Lewis went back to the three F’s – faith, family, and football in trying to explain it for the media.
“Honestly, God is so amazing,” Lewis began. “If you’re in that locker room – there’s something special in that locker room. And every man looks at each other and there’s just a certain type of love that we have for each other. And for me to come out and say that this is my last ride and for me now to be headed back to the Super Bowl, for the possibility of me possibly winning a second ring, how else do you cap off a career? How else do you honor your fans and give them everything that they cheer for? Baltimore is one of the most loyal places since 1996 that I’ve ever been around. And the greatest reward you can ever give them is another chance at a Super Bowl. The last ride, I can only tell you I’m along for the ride.”
Every time Ray Lewis ever spoke about Joe Flacco after 2010 his quotes always seemed to begin with the same refrain: “Look, I’m biased but…”
This was no exception.
“Look, I’m a little biased because I’ve always been a Joe Flacco fan,” Lewis said. “For Joe to do the things he did coming into this business his first five years – he’s the winningest quarterback, I think, in playoff history on the road. That speaks volumes, because that meant he always kept his head on the prize. Of course, a lot of people had a lot of things to say about Joe, but as his teammates, we’ve always been there for Joe. And to do it for him, to do it for Sizzle [Terrell Suggs], to do it for Ray Rice, to do it for Ed Reed, to do it for people that I really wanted them to feel what that confetti felt like, just hearing your name being announced going to the Super Bowl. And so Joe, man, I’m a fan of Joe’s. I’ve always been a fan of Joe’s. He played his butt off again today and he was one of the biggest reasons why we’re here today.”
Boldin also felt the need to once again defend Flacco, who was now going to the Super Bowl and was 60 minutes and one win over the San Francisco 49ers away from heading back upstairs to see Mr. Bisciotti about a ring fitting and an “elite” contract.
“It’s what I’ve been telling you guys all along: he’s [Joe Flacco] a great quarterback,” Boldin said. “I don’t know why people keep doubting him because the bigger the situation is, the bigger he plays. And he’s proven that time and time again. So maybe they’ll get off his back now.
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But in researching all of the players on the 2012 roster, it’s easy to in retrospect to see the commonality and mutual toughness these men had long before they entered the NFL.
“It’s who we are,” said Torrey Smith. “That’s what our city is, a tough city, you get knocked down, you’ve got to get back up. That’s how life – you just can’t lay down and roll over. You’ve got to continue to fight.
“We all want to win the Super Bowl,” Smith said. “Ray [Lewis] isn’t the only guy here. He won, and we all know this is his last shot, but we have Ed Reed, he’s never been to a Super Bowl, Terrell Suggs, Anquan Boldin, never won one, but have been there. We all play for each other.”
Even the usual tough-talking Pollard was heartened and humbled about the accomplishment and certainly his hit on Ridley helped propel the Ravens to victory in a win that sent them to the Super Bowl.
“This is what we’re about,” Pollard said. “Our football team, we’re about hitting, we’re about running, running fast, and playing hard for four quarters. I think we did a really good job as a team coming into a hostile environment. We know what it felt like last year. We didn’t want to have that feeling again walking off that field. I really believe, we as a team came together. We trusted one another, and we left it up to God. We said before we came out here, ‘His will be done.’ We’re grateful to be headed to New Orleans.”
When Harbaugh was asked to summon up words to describe why the Ravens were so resilient and how they could come to New England and beat the Patriots so soundly, he went back to the basics.
“I would go to the words we talk about, you know: faith, and grace and toughness and heart and love and togetherness and work ethic,” Harbaugh said. “You know, it comes back to those things and a bunch of guys that can really play. You know, we have a great owner, we’ve got a great GM, we’ve got a great organization from top to bottom.
“Everybody in our organization pulls the oar in the same way,” he said.
“And maybe in the end, that’s enough.”
