Steve Bisciotti had predicted a year earlier: “When he wakes up and says I don’t want to go through what I have to do physically and mentally for another season, he’s going to come to us and tell us.”
Lewis saying “this is my last ride” might as well have been throwing down the gauntlet to his teammates that anything less than a trip to New Orleans and championship would be unacceptable. No one wanted to be the guy in a January playoff game to cost Ray Lewis a chance to get another Super Bowl ring before he retired.
Perhaps the biblical references after the playoff win in Denver or the constant glory to God from Lewis has affected your opinion about him – either positively or negatively – but the one thing is abundantly clear: he believes. And many around him in purple believed as well.
Ray Lewis is a man of God. And it all starts with that and ends with that.
“God has always been a part of my life. We’ve always believed in what faith is. And faith is a belief in things unseen. It’s hard to believe or listen to what man says because man can be tricked by words. We all can. Oh, you are too small, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. And then you don’t have too many people to believe in. So my relationship with God is the ultimate. I don’t claim no religion, I claim that there is a higher power. I’m non-denominational. There is a higher power that I’m drawn to. I’m emotional when I go to Him because when I go to Him it is the ultimate conversation.”
“And I know there is no bad conversation with him. The only bad conversation is the conversation you don’t have with him. So it’s awesome to have that in my life, and I’ve been having that my whole life.”
You see it on the sidelines when he has been captured talking to God while mic’ed up by NFL Films. You see it on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he is photographed locked in prayer in a suit of gold. You see it the many, many times he’s evoked biblical scripture in the huddle, in the locker room or in the midst of fans or cameras.
“Ray has so much faith that he believes we had to win,” said quarterback Joe Flacco. “That’s not really the truth. Clearly we could’ve lost, easily. But he believed. And the guys on the team believed. He’s such a big figure for a lot of the guys on the team. You can relate to him because he came from nothing and many of us are from the same situation. You believe you have the ability to do it.
“And those speeches he gave us before games — they really do get you fired up.”
He has delivered eulogies for Art Modell and his good friend Steve McNair, he’s taken the pulpit and preached in churches, he’s recruited everyone in his reach and spread a message about his faith. For Lewis – just like Bisciotti, Newsome and Harbaugh — it goes back to a childhood based in prayer and faith and family.
“My childhood defined a lot of who I am today. My mom did a heck of a job raising a man to put my complete faith in God from Day One. From nine years old, when I was ordained as a junior deacon, she always said that some days, you may find yourself away from God, but you will find yourself back. Along the path, every day of my life, I’ve always had a conversation with Him. To always know that what my prayers are, what my visions are, and everything He has given me, is just an opportunity to share with people that life is bigger than making money and just having fancy cars.
“I truly believe that impact and success are two totally different things. Anybody can be successful. You can go build buildings. You can have a nice whatever you want to have. But, impact is totally different, and when you talk about the walk of Jesus, his whole walk was impact. That is what my life is based off of. My life is based off impact, grabbing somebody and letting them know that life is to be lived together to figure out the wrongs and rights and teach somebody else those morals and ethics so they don’t go back down those same roads.”
His childhood tale is sad and well known after nearly two decades in the spotlight – first as a cocky, focused middle linebacker at the always controversial University of Miami and then as an overlooked draft pick in 1996, up until the moment that he walked out of the tunnel one last time at M&T Bank with the Lombardi Trophy in his hands and his ballot all but punched for the Hall of Fame.
