Playoffs will be last dance for Ravens’ Lewis

By DAVID GINSBURG
AP Sports Writer
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — It seems almost impossible to imagine the Ravens without Ray Lewis, who has anchored Baltimore’s renowned defense ever since the team came into existence.
For 17 years, Lewis has been stalking opposing quarterbacks and running backs. He inspired his teammates with emotional speeches, proudly donned his No. 52 jersey on Sunday afternoons and did everything in his power to help Baltimore win.
Soon, all that will only be a memory. In a stunning announcement Wednesday, the two-time AP Defensive Player of the Year said he will retire after the Ravens complete their 2013 playoff run.
“It caught me by surprise, because we all thought the great Ray Lewis was going to play forever,” Baltimore outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said. “I thought he was going to surpass Brett Favre and still be out there doing it well into his 40s. He let us know that the sun is setting on his career. It’s amazing and it’s sad, all at the same time.”
When Lewis gathered his teammates together Wednesday morning, no one had a clue what he was about to tell them.
“Everything that starts has an end,” the 37-year-old Lewis said. “For me, today, I told my team that this will be my last ride.”
The reaction was stunned silence.
“I thought we were getting our ‘Let’s go on a run in the playoffs’ speech,”’ Suggs said. “Not that.”
Lewis has been sidelined since Oct. 14 with a torn right triceps. He intends to return Sunday to face the Indianapolis Colts in what will almost certainly be his final home game.
And when he does his trademark dance after emerging from the tunnel, Lewis will receive an ovation 17 years in the making.
“That moment I walk out of that tunnel Sunday, every person that was a Ravens fan — 1996 to this day — we will all enjoy that moment,” he said.
Lewis is poised to walk away from the game because he wants to spend more time with his sons. While working to return from his injury, Lewis watched two of his boys play on the same high school football team in Florida. He intends to see Ray Lewis III perform as a freshman next year for the University of Miami, where Lewis starred before the Ravens selected him in the first round of the 1996 draft.
Lewis was the AP Defensive Player of the Year in 2000, the same season he was voted Super Bowl MVP following Baltimore’s 34-7 rout of the New York Giants. Published in The Messenger 1.3.13

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