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This Day In Sports…May 15, 1975:
The birthday of one of the greatest and most-feared NFL linebackers of all-time. Ray Lewis spent his entire career with the Baltimore Ravens from 1996-2012 and was the face of the franchise during that time—for better or for worse. For better: the two Super Bowl titles the Ravens won with Lewis roaming the middle. He was MVP of the first one, the 34-7 rout of the New York Giants after the 2000 season. Lewis was the first linebacker ever to win that award, and the first to do it as part of the winning team.
For worse: an obstruction of justice conviction after the stabbing deaths of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub in 2000. That happened after Super Bowl XXIV, before Baltimore’s ensuing Super Bowl run, and there was a cloud over the Lewis the entire season. But on the field he was judged with a football lens, and he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year. During the Ravens’ run through the playoffs to the Super Bowl, Lewis totaled 31 tackles, two interceptions (including a pick-six), nine pass deflections and a fumble recovery in the four games.
Lewis did right his ship and was extensively involved in community charities the rest of his career and beyond. His non-profit, the Ray Lewis 52 Foundation, provides financial assistance to disadvantaged kids. His image recovered enough to allow him to become an NFL contributor for ESPN (most notably “Sunday NFL Countdown”) and FOX after he retired.
Lewis was drafted in the first round (26th overall) in 1996, when the Cleveland Browns uprooted and moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens. It’s amazing to think he was part of the Ravens’ first 17 seasons. Over that time, he amassed an NFL record 2,059 combined tackles and 1,568 solo tackles. On a Logan Paul podcast last week, Tom Brady said Lewis was the player he was most afraid of taking a hit from. “Ray Lewis was at the top,” Brady told Paul, even though Lewis only sacked him once in his career, in a playoff game following the 2009 season. Ray Lewis…50 years old today.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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