Ray Lewis

From a football standpoint, Ray Lewis is arguably and most likely the best athlete to play his position in the sport of football.  He changed the game with his play on thefield, as well as his motivational speaking off the field.  He even created a dance which is now called the “Ray Lewis dance” and he performed it before every game of his career in order to mentally prepare himself, as well as provide a spark to his teammates.  His teammates would circle around him and when he was finished would all convene around the team captain.  From a personal standpoint, watching the dance and this man gives me chills.  He has always been an inspiration to me because of the fact that my entire life, I played the same position as him.  His seventeen year professional career is more than I have played in my entire life.  Because of this, I was able to watch him play football on Sundays for the duration of my life.  Ray Lewis is undoubtedly a future hall of famer.  He ended his career with two super bowl titles, super bowl MVP award, as a defensive player, two defensive player of the year awards, thirteen pro bowl selections, seven first team all pro selections, and three all pro second team selections.  He holds the record for the following statistics, most pro bowls by any player for his position, most selections as an all pro in his position, most games started at his position, most interception return yards at the middle linebacker position, and most tackles in a postseason at any position with fifty-one.  He was also the quickest player to reach the twenty sack and twenty interception club as well as the thirty sack and thirty interception club.  He is also the only player in the history of the National Football League to reach the forty sack and thirty interception club.  His final statistics were 2,061 tackles, 41.5 sacks, and 31 interceptions.  His stats speak for themselves.  The man is an absolute menace on the football field and will never be forgotten.  Unfortunately, this is not the only reason he will never be forgotten.

Following his super bowl victory in 2000, Ray was caught up in a bit of a mess.  In Atlanta a fight occurred between him and his friends and another group of people in which two deaths were a result.  Following the incident, Lewis and his two friends Reginald Oakley, and Joseph Sweeting and were later indicted with murder and aggravated assault charges.  That night, it has been said that Lewis was wearing a white suit to an Atlanta night club; however, this suit was never found.  Also, one of the victims blood was found in Lewis’ limousine. In order to get his charges dropped, Lewis’ lawyer was able to write up a plea agreement in which Lewis would testify against his friends Oakley and Sweeting, and plead guilty to a  misdemeanor of obstruction of justice.  Later that year, his two friends were acquitted of charges as well.  While it is hard to actually tell what happened that night, many people believe that Lewis is not sharing all the information he knows about the occurrences that night.  Also, many believe his is guilty.  This remains one of the largest controversies the NFL has had to face up to date. As a result of his affiliation with the case, Lewis as sentenced to 12 months of probation in which during this time of course he was not allowed to consume either alcoholic beverages or drugs.  Lewis was also fined by the league for 250,000 dollars, which remains today to be the largest fine to any player excluding the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs.  Lewis definitely paid for whatever role he played that night and it should be left at that.  This unfortunately is not the case.  People still hold this incident over his head to this day, 13 years later.  An important thing to remember and what it boils down to, is in the United States of America, it is common sense and simply stated that every citizen is innocent until proven guilty.  Since Lewis was never proven guilty, he should be considered an innocent man and his career should not be tarnished.

 

Ray Lewis should be considered an inspiration for athletes everywhere.  His motivational speaking as well as his play on the field exemplifies leadership, and true passion not only to the sport of football, but also to whatever anyone is interested.  Lewis preaches about effort and faith in God and applying that to everything you do.  He spends time speaking to children on these topics, and will always be considered as one of the greatest to put on a pair of shoulder pads, and play the game of football