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| Ray - It Ain't So |
Lewis left yesterday's game against the Cowboys with a torn tricep, leaving his season (and career) in serious doubt.
I don't know about you, but whenever he is done (if it is a fact that he is done now), I will definitely miss watching games and highlights featuring Lewis, probably the best and most feared linebacker that I've grown up watching.
I thought about it earlier today, and the thought simply blew my mind. Ray Lewis, part of the original Baltimore Ravens squad in 1996, started in the league when I was in middle school. Since then, I've gotten two college degrees (neither of which I've used to their fullest as of yet - that's another story), had three dogs come and/or go in my life, stood up in four weddings, among plenty of other random crap that I'm sure I could come up with.
The point - Ray Lewis has been a staple in my football watching lifetime. Back when he joined the league was around the time I would have a weekly pick'em pool with me, my dad and two neighbors down the street.
When I got my first job at Jewel and met many people who would become my best friends, that's when the confidence pools started, where you pick each game and then rank them based on how confident you are in them winning.
As a little bit of cash flowed in came the online betting - which I still do to this day. Add in fantasy football, my constant blogging about football and my recent introduction to DirecTV, and I've experienced just about every aspect of football in the past 16.5 years aside from playing it competitively.
All the while, Ray Lewis developed into and maintained elite status as the best linebacker in the league. My experiences with football-related items have evolved, from picking for or against Baltimore in a fun pool with my neighbors as a teenager to worrying about whether I should start my running back against his defense in fantasy football - normally I wouldn't unless I had no other options.
Some might remember him negatively for the obstruction of justice charge involving a double murder that occurred at a Super Bowl party in 2000, a year before he would go on to win Super Bowl MVP in the Ravens' first-ever franchise title. While I can't blame people for holding that against him, since he was acquitted of the most serious of charges, I won't hark too much on that memory of him when thinking back on his career.
When I think of Ray Lewis, I'll think of the scariest guy to step on the field. I never thought someone could look scary in purple - I was wrong.
I hope this isn't the end of his career. No one matched his energy - from his rookie year as a 21-year old kid to a 37-year old grizzled vet. If it is the end of his career, a part of my childhood NFL experiences watching the game has gone with him.
