NEW ORLEANS — Ray Lewis will head into retirement as a champion.
Baltimore’s standout middle linebacker began his final evening on the football field with a motivational speech to his teammates. He ended it looking upward into a shower of silver streamers and purple confetti after the Ravens won the Super Bowl.
“It’s simple: When God is for you, who can be against you?” Lewis said, clutching the Lombardi Trophy. “It’s no greater way, as a champ, to go out on your last ride with the men that I went out with, with my teammates. And you looked around this stadium and … Baltimore! Baltimore! We coming home, baby! We did it!”
Standing tall in the middle of a defense that survived a frenzied rally by the San Francisco 49ers, Lewis put a lovely bow on his 17th season in the NFL by earning his second Super Bowl title — 12 years after he won his first.
When Lewis first led Baltimore to Super Bowl glory, he was a 25-year-old at the height of his game. A terror in the middle of the best defense in the league, Lewis was voted MVP after the Ravens beat the New York Giants, 34-7, to earn their first championship.
On Sunday night, Lewis and his defense played a supporting role to Joe Flacco and the offense.
The 37-year-old Lewis had only two solo tackles through the first three quarters and sometimes struggled to cover receivers venturing into his area. Wide receiver Michael Crabtree caught a 19-yarder on San Francisco’s second series, and tight end Vernon Davis eluded Lewis twice before making second-quarter catches.
Lewis did, however, make two tackles during the 49ers’ final drive. San Francisco had a fourth-and-goal play from 5 when Lewis charged in on a blitz. He didn’t get to San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick, but the quarterback’s pass sailed out of the end zone.
After amassing a team-high 44 tackles in Baltimore’s first three playoff wins, Lewis was anything but exceptional against the 49ers. But the Ravens played like champions around him, and now Lewis can saunter into the sunset after putting his fingerprints on the Lombardi Trophy for a second time.
While working his way back from a torn right triceps that had kept him sidelined since Oct. 14, Lewis told high-ranking team officials that he was going to retire after this season. He shared the news with his teammates and the media on Jan. 2, saying Baltimore’s postseason run would be his “last ride.”
Lewis was the second draft pick in Ravens’ history, following Jonathan Ogden in 1996. Ogden, who was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame on Saturday, waved to his former teammate during the pregame coin flip Sunday.
Perhaps one day, Ogden will extend the same greeting to Lewis in Canton, Ohio.
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