No Harm Looking
Baltimore,Md – Ray Lewis said Thursday that during his brief experience as a free agent that he was just “flirting” with the idea of ending his career with another team.
Bet NFL Future Odds
But in the end a seven-year contract offer from the Ravens, and the ability to cement his legacy in Baltimore, turned out to be too much to turn down.
It also happened to be the best deal on the table.
So after the 10-time Pro Bowl linebacker tested the free agent market he ultimately signed the deal he initially received from Baltimore. Now Lewis will almost assuredly finish his NFL career where it started.
It was Lewis’ first experience as a free agent since being drafted in 1996 by the Ravens, and he liked the idea of at least getting an idea of his worth.
ke that mistake. I’ve watched them walk out and try to chase something else that wasn’t real.”
Lewis signed the contract with Baltimore on March 10, but the team waited until Thursday to hold a press conference so the 33-year-old Lewis could be joined by owner Steve Bisciotti, general manager Ozzie Newsome and coach John Harbaugh.
Bisciotti said that the Ravens made Lewis a solid offer before the beginning of the free agency period. Instead of immediately accepting the deal, Lewis requested the opportunity to see if there was a better deal available elsewhere.
Bisciotti readily agreed, even though it was rumored that the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys were interested in the two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
“(I knew) somebody might want to throw crazy money at him,” Bisciotti said. “All he wanted was the freedom to see what his market is. There was worry that somebody would pay him and he would leave. … After 13 years, he might have been excited to go to New York or Dallas to do something different. If he’d have chosen that, we’d still all be friends and we’d have the money to reapply to someone else.”
ould be.
“Opportunity knocks every freaking day of life. In this business, a lot of things can be flirtatious,” he said. “But the bottom line is how far you’re willing to flirt. I didn’t go that far. I was OK with flirting with the woman I started with, and that was the Ravens.”
Truth is, Lewis never even came close to leaving.
“I didn’t take a trip, I didn’t visit anyone else’s facility. I didn’t do any of that,” he said. “That would have took away from why I do what I do for my city. Why, when I put that purple jersey on my back, I give everything for every fan in the stands.”
Lewis would have considered wearing a different colored jersey next season, but no team offered him enough to make him turn his back on the Baltimore.
“To be brutally honest, I had more contact with my organization than I had with anybody,” he said.
Lewis and the Ravens have been together through a Super Bowl, two AFC Championship games, several rebuilding years and three head coaches. And now they will remain together until the middle linebacker decides it’s time to quit.
“Me being a Raven, it was supposed to be that way,” Lewis said. “I started here, I’m ending here.”
Posted: 3/20/09 12:10PM ET
