It was in everyone’s best interests – from Bisciotti to the Ravens to Ray Lewis to the city to the fans to the brand of the team – to get a deal done that would complete a journey that began in 1996.
Lewis wound up remaining in Baltimore, having never visited another NFL complex despite rumors that the New York Jets or the Dallas Cowboys would make an offer. The man some teammates call Mufasa would end his career leaving the stadium holding a fresh Super Bowl XLVII Lombardi Trophy and a promise from Bisciotti that a statue was forthcoming in his honor.
“It’s just a great thing, a great career,” said Marvin Lewis. “What a legacy, what he means to the city. All the conversations we’ve had from the parking lot of old Jack Murphy’s stadium in 1998, we lost to whoever we lost to, Ray asked if it was okay if I could ask Coach Marchibroda whether he could stay behind because they were finishing up his contract. I said, ‘That’s a good thing, I’ll go talk to Coach because you’ll never play for another team but the Ravens.’ And then a few years ago when he was a free agent again, I reminded him of that when he called me. I said, ‘Remember what I told you back in 1998? I’m not changing my tune now.’”
Marvin Lewis said he refused to entertain the thought of Ray Lewis playing with his team in Cincinnati or anywhere else.
“I just feel like there was opportunity for something special, something amazing,” Marvin said. “Number one, I already had a middle linebacker, but number two is that I just felt like I don’t want to see Ray Lewis running around in a green uniform, a red uniform, an orange and black uniform if he could still be in a purple uniform. I just think that he and J.O. [Jonathan Ogden], they struck gold. I knew he had an opportunity there, and he explained it all to me, and I just said, ‘Ray, I said this in 1998 and I still believe the same now that you should never play for another organization. It would cheapen what you have done in your career.’”
Ray Lewis made the playoffs in each of his last five seasons in the NFL. He appeared in three AFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl during the John Harbaugh era. Like all members of the 2008 team with Harbaugh who remained for the duration as holdovers from the Billick era and won Super Bowl XLVII – Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Marshal Yanda and Sam Koch – he enjoyed five straight years of January football, incredible by any measurement in the modern NFL.
So how did Lewis survive 17 years in the middle of the field in the most grueling sport in our society?
“It is a combination of a lot of things,” Lewis said. “God has been awesome in my life to keep me coming back. I’ve had my share of injuries, and I’ve had my share of bumps and bruises. I think the formula of truly always finding a different way to be better every year. Some people just come back and train for football, period. I am always trying to evolve, to do something different. Every year, my regimen has always changed. That is one thing that I’ve always challenged a lot of athletes, don’t become one minded and say, ‘I’m just a football player.’ There are so many things, so many fine-tuned muscles and things that we have to work out. That’s why I think so many exercises, whether it’s karate, whether it’s cycling, whether it’s wrestling, whether it’s swimming, whatever it is, every year I am always going to try to strengthen myself in some other areas. That is one of the biggest keys that I always saw as my success. I never got to a point that I stayed the same. Every year, I was always getting different, climbing, climbing and climbing. That is one of the keys to longevity.”
And that longevity has only fueled the legend of Ray Lewis and why he played 17 years chasing that elusive confetti one more time.
“I think when you talk about a legend, when you talk about leaving a legacy, I think it is all about what your peers speak about you, the people you actually impact on and off the field,” Lewis said. “If nothing else, I have always told people that your greatest leaders are your greatest servants. You are going to find people who lead, lead, lead, but more importantly, they serve more than anything. That is what this team is built around, and that is what my whole legacy is about. My whole legacy from day one when I came in was I always grabbed someone to try to take them to the next level of being a better man, being a better woman, being a better child — whatever it is. At the end of the day, that is what you want your legacy to be, to leave a great name. Hopefully, I did that.”
