Ray Lewis
might not have the same physical impact on a football game as he once had, but
there's little doubt his words do. The retiring, future Hall of Fame linebacker
known as the "General" amongst teammates had something to say to
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco before Saturday's Divisional round
playoff victory over the Denver Broncos.
"In the
tunnel, I told him, 'You're the General now. Lead us to a victory. You will
lead us today. I'm just here to facilitate things,'" said Lewis, the team
website reported.
Flacco went
out and threw for 331 yards and three touchdown passes. He is already the only
quarterback in NFL history to reach the playoffs in each of his first five
seasons. This will be his third conference championship. And he outplayed
Peyton Manning.
Lewis also
had a message during the week.
"I
challenged my team this week to not listen to anything outside of our building
to buy into who we are as a team, everything we've been through
injury-wise," said Lewis, the Baltimore Sun reported. "Now for us to
be here, I think this will go down as one of the greatest victories in Ravens
history.
"For us
to come in here and win, underdogs, that's the beautiful thing about sports.
That's the thing that I'll probably miss anything about my career, it will be
to listen to what people say you can't do and then to go do it."
The Ravens
have a little bit of juice right now. The Broncos had more than one chance to
close the door but couldn't. Lewis was far from the most effective player on
the field Saturday, but his words and the emotion surrounding his impending
retirement seem to have given life to a team that lost 4-of-5 to close the
regular season.
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