Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis could not have dreamed of a sweeter end to his 17-year career than returning to the Super Bowl, but the 13-time Pro Bowl linebacker said he was happiest for his teammates.
The 37-year-old Lewis, who got to raise the Lombardi Trophy in 2001, is the only remaining member of that Baltimore title team as the Ravens return to the Super Bowl for the first time in 12 years.
“To do it for Joe [Flacco], to do it for Sizzle [Terrell Suggs], to do it for Ray Rice, to do it for Ed Reed ... I really wanted them to feel what that confetti felt like, just hearing your name being announced going to the Super Bowl,” Lewis said after Sunday’s 28-13 win over the New England Patriots in the AFC title game.
That road victory lifted the Ravens into the National Football League title game on Feb. 3 last year in New Orleans against the San Francisco 49ers, who beat the Atlanta Falcons for the NFC title.
Lewis has already said this post-season would be his “last ride” and the two-time defensive player of the year has spent a lot of time reflecting on his career.
“There’s something special in that locker room,” Lewis said. “There’s just a certain type of love that we have for each other.
The fiercely competitive linebacker hit a scary low when he was held in an Atlanta jail linked to a double-killing outside a nightclub after he had attended the 2000 Super Bowl as a spectator.
Five months later, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice and was fined US$250,000 by the NFL.
One year after the incident cast a cloud over his future, Lewis was named MVP of a Super Bowl win against the New York Giants as the undisputed leader of a defense that set a record for fewest points allowed in a 16-game season.
Lewis worked to build a life away from the playing field that mirrored the quality he achieved on it, creating a foundation to help disadvantaged youth in Baltimore and growing to become one of the league’s most respected players.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was asked about the impact Lewis has had on the team’s march to the Super Bowl.
“I’m just feeling an incredible amount of awe. Ray would be the first to tell you this, so I’m just going to share it: awe in the work that God can do in one man’s life. To me, Ray’s the epitome of that,” the coach said.
Lewis returned this season after missing 10 games because of a torn tricep.
Ravens players keep bringing up Lewis and his last hurrah as a rallying point.
Lewis, the only NFL player ever to amass at least 40 sacks and 30 interceptions, said knowing that his team feels that way is his greatest satisfaction.
“It’s why you play the game,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier