Ray Lewis UNLOADS On Shannon Sharpe Rift, NFL Fake Leadership & Podcast Clout Chasing | PBD Podcast | Ep. 641

Summary

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PBD Podcast Ep. 641

Guest: Ray Lewis

Title: "Ray Lewis UNLOADS On Shannon Sharpe Rift, NFL Fake Leadership & Podcast Clout Chasing"

Air Date: September 4, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode features NFL Hall of Famer Ray Lewis in a raw, wide-ranging conversation with Patrick Bet-David (PBD). Covering Lewis’s old-school mentality, leadership in the Ravens’ legendary defenses, perspectives on modern NFL culture and leadership, his rift with Shannon Sharpe, and deep reflections on manhood, faith, and societal trends, the conversation is both spirited and candid. Ray Lewis addresses fake leadership in today’s NFL, calls out clout-chasing in the podcast scene, and presents a vision for influence that transcends sport.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Old-School NFL Mentality & Leadership [(00:06)-(24:00)]

• Ray Lewis as the “Most Feared”

  • PBD opens by mentioning Tom Brady once called Ray Lewis the only player he ever feared. Lewis responds, crediting the mindset and commitment of his teams:

    “Men made up their mind that another side that had different colors on was not going to beat us one on one. It's impossible, period.” – Ray Lewis [00:06]

• Defensive Culture Building in Baltimore

  • Ray shares stories about building the Ravens' defensive culture, including their focus on accountability, locker room transparency (led by Marvin Lewis), and calling teammates out directly to drive greatness.
  • On leadership:

    "Our locker room is everything. Once Marvin allowed us transparency, that’s when we became unstoppable.” [10:45]

  • The defense became self-policing, often requiring less coaching and more peer accountability.
  • Iconic stat:

    “We went 50 straight games without seeing 100 yard rushing. … And you know who that streak started with? Baris [Barry] Sanders.” – Ray Lewis [23:24]

• Preparation and Film Study - Importance of Knowing Everything

  • Ray details legendary preparation, meeting for film with Marvin Lewis at 6:30 am for years:

    “Rest of my career… 6:30 in the morning, the rest of my career. I knew it the way coaches knew it.” [13:33]

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2. The Ravens’ Defensive Dominance & Team Dynamics [(24:00)-(44:00)]

• The Intensity of the Ravens’ Defense

  • Ray describes the “bully” mindset of the Ravens, not allowing star running backs—Barry Sanders, Jerome Bettis, Eddie George—to meet statistical landmarks against them.
  • The entire team, including large personalities (the “alphas”), accepted Ray’s leadership by 1998.

• Recruiting Players & Lack of Offensive Stability

  • Ray was active in recruiting, especially at Pro Bowls, nearly convincing Peyton Manning to Baltimore.
  • Regrets the inability to find a franchise quarterback during his peak years:

    “The one thing in my whole career that was just crazy is we couldn't find one solid quarterback when we were dominant. ... I almost want to say, in my career, probably 20, 21, 22 quarterbacks.” [27:06]

• Notable Teammate Stories

  • Praises Jamal Lewis and Priest Holmes, explaining why Priest was let go (“He was spotty because Jamal was so dominant” [31:36]).
  • On coaching icons: Marvin Lewis, Brian Billick, Rex Ryan—contrasts coaching styles and talks about their influence.

• Culture & Peer Corrections

  • Stories of heated callouts, peer accountability:

    “You call out exactly what it is, bro. Don't you ever sell me out there like that again.” [22:40]

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3. The Shannon Sharpe Rift & Thoughts on Clout-Chasing [(41:46)-(47:52)]

• Shannon as Teammate

  • High praise for Shannon’s work ethic and clutch play. Notes Shannon and Rod Woodson argued constantly and Ray had to mediate.
  • On Shannon’s TV and media success:

    “I'm shocked at his content. In a million years, the things that Shannon has said now or did now, I would never believe that Shannon would say or do anything.” [00:20], restated [45:06]

  • Comments on the evolving media landscape and pursuit of “clout”:

    “Everybody wants the follower, everybody wants to be popular, everybody wants to make money. ... The devil has the ability to make you popular. God has the ability to give you influence.” [45:25]

• Personal Rift

  • Ray distances himself from Shannon, recounts a time when Sharpe asked if Ray would do a podcast with him—Ray declined due to differing values and approach.

    “For you to do that, yeah, I– I wouldn't trust you again… Not on this side of life. Like, they just don't.” [48:02]

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4. Modern NFL: Grievances & Shifting Legacy [(64:30)-(81:12)]

• NFL Changes and Critique

  • Lewis laments “fake leadership,” decries the impact of NIL, transfer portal, and shifts in loyalty and toughness in both college and NFL.

    “If the game suffered from one thing, it’s just me. The game suffers from…I think the integrity of letting men be men.” [67:02]

  • On changes to physicality and rules:

    “You can't tell a man in middle of the action, ‘oh, guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna make the biggest play of the game, but I'm gonna turn my head to the left.’ … I want his soul, P. I believe you. Right.” [78:42]

• On "Dirty" Plays

  • Admits there’s a line (“Romanowski? Yes. He done some dirty things” [79:38]), but insists hard, physical hits are intrinsic to football.

• Mental Health and Suicides Among Young Men

  • Shares deep stats and concern about rising mental health crises, suicide rates among young men:

    “Last year, from the age 22 to 55 years old, we have more men commit suicide than we had the last 100 years.” [95:27]

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5. On Not Coaching; Impact Beyond Football [(65:29)-End]

• Why Ray Lewis Isn’t Coaching – And His Broader Mission

  • Despite many offers, Ray says his calling is bigger than football:

    “What God has called me to do is bigger than just football, it's bigger. And so the locker room now is bigger. Right. It's global. Because now I travel the world preaching the gospel…” [65:46]

  • He still considers coaching roles but is skeptical due to cultural changes reducing loyalty and physicality.

• Describes Building Influence

  • Contrasts “being popular” with having genuine influence and stresses the importance of using platforms to uplift rather than chase clout.

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6. Memorable Quotes & Segments (with Timestamps)

• “Men made up their mind that another side that had different colors on was not going to beat us one on one. It's impossible, period.” — Ray Lewis [00:06; 16:31]
• “You call out exactly what it is, bro. Don't you ever sell me out there like that again.” — Ray Lewis [22:40]
• “We went 50 straight games without seeing 100 yard rushing... And you know who that streak started with? Baris Sanders.” — Ray Lewis [23:24]
• “The devil has the ability to make you popular. God has the ability to give you influence.” — Ray Lewis [45:25]
• “If you were coaching yourself when it says power of life and death is found in the tongue, then go back and check out a couple of episodes and ask yourself, do you give life or do you give death?” — Ray Lewis [46:29]
• “What God has called me to do is bigger than just football, it's bigger… Now I travel the world preaching the gospel.” — Ray Lewis [65:46]
• “Our kids are the ages 10 to 24. That's the most alarming age because they're checking out.” — Ray Lewis [97:46]

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Notable & Entertaining Moments

• Ray talking Deion Sanders as a teammate:

  “He would look at somebody and be like, bro, don't worry about it. I got that. ... He's wired differently. Prime.” [53:41]

• On playing Guitar Hero with Kobe Bryant, discussing longevity:

  “I'm not blanking. And he just started laughing. I'm like, bro, we the same.” [54:13]

• King of Comedy love:

  “Who, Bernie [Mac]? Yes, absolutely. I kill Bird. Like, people…” [76:31]

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Significant Timestamps

• 00:06 – Opening: Tom Brady’s “feared Ray Lewis” quote & intensity of Ravens’ defensive culture
• 06:24 – Ray on stopping Barry Sanders, team’s “bully” mentality
• 14:04 – Legendary film study, Marvin Lewis’s impact, defensive football IQ
• 23:10 – Peer corrections and 50-game 100-yard rushing streak
• 27:06 – On never landing a franchise QB, nearly signing Peyton Manning
• 31:36 – Letting Priest Holmes go and running back battles
• 45:06 – Shannon Sharpe’s media persona, Ray’s surprise at content
• 65:46 – Why Ray hasn’t gone into coaching; vision for life beyond football
• 78:42 – Views on hard hits/helmet-to-helmet and what’s a “dirty play”
• 95:27 – Male mental health/suicide crisis and failures of modern culture

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Podcast Tone & Takeaways

Ray Lewis brings a mix of relentless intensity, old-school football philosophy, and deep reflection about the state of society, masculinity, and leadership. His standards for himself, his teams, and for what he believes the NFL has lost (especially real leadership and accountability) permeate the entire episode. He is deeply faith-driven and challenges the current “clout-chasing” culture, both in sports and media.

Useful for listeners who want to understand not just NFL history but lessons on legacy, leadership, and purpose, as well as the personal cost of public rifts and modern fame.

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Miss an ad, an intro, or an outro? We skipped it. This is pure, unfiltered Ray Lewis and PBD.

Transcript

[Interviewer]

Tom Brady said the only player he ever feared was Ray Lewis.

[Ray Lewis]

Men made up their mind that another side that had different colors on was not going to beat us one on one. It's impossible, period. It's not, it's not hard.

[Interviewer]

But Shannon Sharp, did you think he was one day going to be a good TV guy, personality?

[Ray Lewis]

I'm shocked at his content. In a million years, the things that Shannon has said now or did now, I would never believe that Shannon would say or do anything. The devil has the ability to make you popular.

[Interviewer]

So this was personal.

[Ray Lewis]

One thing my whole career that was just crazy is we couldn't find one solid quarterback. I was 30 seconds from Peyton Manning saying yes to come to Baltimore. He's, there's no way in hell Peyton's coming into Baltimore and getting an eye in zone in Baltimore. We had an entire life size picture of Bears Hamilton before. When you walk into me, period. It's not, it's not, not hard. We had an unwritten rule. Never leave your brother. Never leave your brother. Did you ever think you would make it?

[Interviewer]

Adam, what's your point? The future looks bright.

[Ray Lewis]

My handshake is better than anything I ever saw. It's right here.

[Interviewer]

You are one of one my son's right about.

[Ray Lewis]

I don't think I've ever said this before.

[Interviewer]

Ray Lewis. We're finally doing this, huh?

[Ray Lewis]

We're finally doing this.

[Interviewer]

Finally happening.

[Ray Lewis]

My man. My man.

[Interviewer]

So to the audience that I went up there, I said, give me the biggest, you know, information on Ray Lewis. So first the, is it the first defensive player to be on the COVID of Madden? Right? You got multiple chips you came up with, you know, on any list, you're put on as the greatest linebacker of all time. Unlt on all lists. Tom Brady said the only player he ever feared was Ray Lewis. Is there any compliment above, you know, Tom Brady saying something like, something like that about you, that's like the pinnacle. But it's, it's good too. We've had many conversations but this is good up front and we're doing it with camera. But I wanted to start off, you know, right. I just want to make sure that your, your NFL's IQ is still there. Rob, if you don't mind pulling out the recent jersey of I don't know if you've seen this or not. If you can pull this up. Shador Sanders jersey. Did you see this clip here with have you seen this or no?

[Ray Lewis]

No, I haven't.

[Interviewer]

Okay, you have to see this.

[Ray Lewis]

Okay.

[Interviewer]

You have. So this just happened a Few days ago.

[Ray Lewis]

Okay.

[Interviewer]

Okay. Drew Ski. Stephen A. Smith, espn. And I want you to see what questions she asks. And the media fans have gone after her. So you see whose jersey that is, right?

[Ray Lewis]

I see whose jersey that is.

[Interviewer]

Go for it. Rob.

[Ray Lewis]

How you doing? Good, man. Excited. You know, flew here for this.

[Interviewer]

I'm up, though.

[Ray Lewis]

Jeez. It's a blast for us to have you here. Thank you so much. Much for joining us. All right, so the jersey. Let's get into it, because obviously this ties the one Shador Sanders, who balled out in his first.

[Interviewer]

I'm sorry, what do you think about that? Yeah, how do you. How quickly we freaking get Barry Sanders.

[Ray Lewis]

How can you miss that, though? That's impossible to miss.

[Interviewer]

That jersey is like. That jersey is a. You know, one of those where even now you'll see guys wearing that jersey. Barry's jersey.

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, my. Too many freaking people. What?

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Did you ever. You played against him, right?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What was he like?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, he didn't have a good day against us. No, no, it was a bad.

[Interviewer]

Oh, that was this.

[Ray Lewis]

This is when. This is when we was. We were just starting to build a bully, and he came to us in 98. I think it's last year. And he needed something like 48 yards to, like. And it was like, personal. And I was like, he's not getting those yards. Like, I love Barry, but he's not getting those yards. And we hunted him. Like, we hunted him. It was tough.

[Interviewer]

What was the game? I want to know the stats.

[Ray Lewis]

He's probably the last game we played. What was it? 98. Come on, pull up me some stats. It was 98 he played against.

[Interviewer]

Is that the record year? If it's the record year, it's 97. Cause you came in 96.

[Ray Lewis]

I came in 96. Right. I think we played him in 98. Yeah. Whatever day he came to Baltimore, that was his last run, and it just did not end well. Yep, that was it. December 27th.

[Interviewer]

Trust me, this December 27th. 98.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes, sir.

[Interviewer]

What did he do? Let's. Let's see the stats. Rob, can you pull that up? 12-27-98. What did Barry Sanders. So in that game. So I have won. 11-9-97. Barry Sanders played against you during that. He rushed over 2,000 in that game. Barry Sanders ran for 81 yards, 20 carries. What, 97 in 97?

[Ray Lewis]

97.

[Interviewer]

But you're saying you guys also played 98 or you're thinking, what.

[Ray Lewis]

27 did we play them in 98 in Baltimore?

[Interviewer]

How shifty was He.

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, man. That. That was his greatest gift. Wow. What was it? 19 attempts for 41 yards.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my God.

[Ray Lewis]

Listen, man. Oh, my God. That's serious business, man. And that's when we was building up to it.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my God.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Personal. So right before the game, you're like, we're gonna. We're not gonna let.

[Ray Lewis]

We had a. We had a. We had a whole. Barry, no, I love to death, but we had an entire life size pitch of Bar Sanders before. When you walk in the meeting, period, it's not. It's not hard. He will not get what he's trying to get.

[Interviewer]

And so, so what has the mindset going into the game? Are you. Are you just looking for a reason to increase the temperature in the room?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah, we. We were. We were bullies, man. This is when you can beat people up, like, and just literally beat them up. And when he came in there, we was like, look, I told the D line, I said, look, keep them boys off of us. We gonna hunt him. And man, it was that. That group started to build something that ultimately ended up being 2,098 was kind of the break in that Rob Wilson has just came to us. Sam Adams, Tony Saragusa, Pete, Peter Bowell, Michael McQuarrie, Corey behind us, Dwayne on one side, Chris. Chris McAllister on the other side. And we're looking at each other. How are we gonna lose, right? Like, who. Who can actually move the ball against us? So by the time we got to Marvin Lewis, Marvin was like. I was like, marvin, stop coaching us. Unleash us. Like you're trying to coach us. Don't coach us. Because if you coach us, you're gonna have us thinking we're not thinkers. Like, half of my guys on my D line, they can't think like that.

[Interviewer]

In what setting are you saying this.

[Ray Lewis]

To the coach after almost every game? Like, stop. Like. Cause so what would happen is we would put in certain defenses. And I'm like, mark, we don't need to blitz nobody. Like, we can beat them in a four man front, seven man front. Trust me. Sam and Goose, they gonna take two. Somebody gonna have to find a way to block me and somebody gonna have to try to find a way to stop Pete. We was tough. We were. We were a bad matchup for a lot of offenses. So when Marvin came to meet, I told Rob Wilson, I said, rod, there's one rule. Don't let the ball get over your head. We win. It's that simple. There's nobody that can stand in front of us now. Remember, we started piecing this team together in 96. We got rid of a lot of guys. 97, my second year, we were like, ah, you know, we was 4 and 12. We were 6 and 10, right? 6, 9 and 1. Right? Then 99, we got to 8 and 8. But we started to feel this thing started to move early. 98. But then we was kind of struggling offensively, so we couldn't put no pieces together. And then that's. By the time I went to. To Oz and I was like, oz, man to man. You just got to trust me. Like, like the culture, like, who we gonna bring in here? Like, it means everything. The locker room is everything. And he was like, look, and this is why I think me and his relationship is what it is. He says, look, it's your locker room. You tell me what you want, you tell me the pieces.

[Interviewer]

And this is who? Oz.

[Ray Lewis]

Ozzy Newsom.

[Interviewer]

Oh, wow. So he. He. So let me ask you though, would you go and say we got a trade for him, we gotta get for him?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. Yes. So I was recruiting because we were. We were horrible. When we got to Baltimore, there was no identity at all, right? In our division P. It was. It was Jacksonville. Eddie. EDDIE George, Steve McNair was in that division, and they were having. They were having their way with us. We were just. We were just a very unbalanced team. We had a lot of old Cleveland Brown mentalities still on the team. How do we win? How do we lose? Right? We had older guys who really. They just didn't. They stopped.

[Interviewer]

Who were the pessimistic guys in the locker room? We're like, we got to get rid of these guys.

[Ray Lewis]

Me?

[Interviewer]

You?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You were pessimistic.

[Ray Lewis]

I was young. I was young and I was. I was like, look, man, I. I'm not. I. I come from where we win. Every time we step on, we win. We're not stepping on the field negotiating if no, bro. So I'm. I'm looking at all this and I'm like, nah. What? Nah, we gotta change this. We gotta change that. We need this. We need that. So then that's when, honestly, it was probably 98, 99. Actually at the end of 99, where I actually started to ask real hard questions like, why do we run this? Why do we play this defense? Why do we play him? And why do we make him do this on this? No.

[Interviewer]

One on one or in group settings.

[Ray Lewis]

Group settings and one on one.

[Interviewer]

So in front of your peers, teammates, you're Asking, why is he running this?

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, we. We. This was the transparency on what we had in that locker room is what made that locker room.

[Interviewer]

When did that become that transparent?

[Ray Lewis]

Right. In 98.

[Interviewer]

In 98.

[Ray Lewis]

98. Who.

[Interviewer]

Who revealed that? Who allowed that?

[Ray Lewis]

Marvin.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Ray Lewis]

Marvin allowed what we started to do on the field, what we saw.

[Interviewer]

Marvin was at the house for your birthday, by the way.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. That's what I'm telling you. Like the way we thought.

[Interviewer]

I spoke to him for 45 minutes about it. I was telling you. Him and I had a lengthy conversation together.

[Ray Lewis]

Listen, that guy, he. I give. I give all credit to what it means to actually know what you're doing. A lot of people could come to work and they can have an awesome talent, but to know what you're doing. I came upstairs. So Damani Dawson was a problem for me. Problem. Hall of Fame center for Pittsburgh. Had the ashiest hands I've ever seen in my life. Did not care about the freaking hands. And I'm like, wow. So I come in my first two, three years, and we're like, really not good on the defense line. And this man is jumping, climbing up to me so quickly, and I'm like, what the. I got, you know. And you're talking about a pulling center. It's very rare, right, that you have that many centers that can actually pull and do all these things he was doing. And there was one game where he made me take some real gambles that hurt our defense bad, and it gassed us. Jerome hit us down the pipe. And Marvin comes into me, and he's cursing me from ear to ear while everybody's in the room. He's like, you. I could never have a great defense of my defense if my linebacker cuts the middle of the defense. I said, look, man. So he cursed me a couple of times too many, and I got up and walked out. I was like, look, straight up, like, man, I ain't never had a father in my life, bro. So the last thing you're going to do is curse me. You can coach me and you can coach me hard, but don't curse me.

[Interviewer]

You'd say that tomorrow.

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, man. This is why our relationship turned to be much more than just coach player. Wow. Yeah. He really started to understand what I was trying to do. And it wasn't selfish. It was build a culture. And the culture had to be built off accountability. Do your job and know what the hell you're doing. Now when you started to learn. When I did that against Damani, he says. He says, to me, you can't do that. I said, well, I don't know how to beat him. I don't know how to beat him. I'm young Marv. Like, that dude is good.

[Interviewer]

Who's this?

[Ray Lewis]

Damani Dawson, right? I said, the way this guy comes off the line and climbed to that second level, man. My gosh.

[Interviewer]

That's the center you're talking about?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. I'm telling you, pb, he was rough, man. Damoni. Yeah. Hall of famer, hall of Fame. Just, just technical, technique wise. Just so skilled. And.

[Interviewer]

And then this is a 300 pound guy. 320 pound guy.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. So Marvin says, I says, I don't know how to beat him. Help me beat him. He said, you want me, you want me to help you beat him? I said, absolutely. He said, start meeting me upstairs every morning, 6:30 every morning. I was like, before camp. He was like, yes, because I want you to go through install. I want you to go through anything. You say you want it, Come, come get it all. Rest of my career, from that moment, the rest of my career. The rest of my career. 6:30 in the morning, the rest of my career.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Lewis]

I knew it. I knew it the way coaches knew it. There's nothing that I did not know from a scouting report, from an offensive coordinator, a player's statistics, whatever they was. Oh, man, there was, There was moments where I got through in my career where I was. I became the one to write up the first 15 plays. So before every game, because I started to understand my players. Not better than the coaches, but I was out there in battle with them. So I know how they think, I know how they react. And man, I was there.

[Interviewer]

Moments where you're like, this guy doesn't belong on the team anymore. We got to get rid of him.

[Ray Lewis]

There was a. There was a moment that, that happened. Those are moments that says, we're not using him. Right?

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Ray Lewis]

Right. I'll give you example. Terrell Suggs, right? Terrell Suggs is probably coming off the ball. I done saw a lot of people with that first step. J.J. white, Derrick Brooks, they got steps coming off that ball. But his power and the way T sizzle comes off the ball, it's unseen, right? And. And next thing you know, we. We're in. We're in the deep, we're in the meetings, and we're calling the first two, three plays of him dropping in the flats trying to fool somebody. I'm like, what? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. So that's when I went to the Coordinator personally, I said, look, just give me a chance. I'm gonna write down 15 plays. Give me the first 15 of any game based off my study. And to know how my guys hunt for what, like 12 years? Like four, 11 years. And it was a competition with me and coaches. Cause they used to always say, how do you know this? How do you know the way it's going to happen? I said, I don't. But I'm dictating what won't happen, Right? Cause every defense, Every defense has holes in it, right? So if you come and you try to disguise a certain thing, and you playing against Peyton Manor, you playing against Tom Brady. Cover one, you know, you got an out route, you got a curl, you got a backside seam route, you got so many things. Cover two, you know, check, check, check. Run the ball because you got a light box. Cover three, you're safe. They gonna cheat down when he want to cheat down. But how do you disguise that enough so they don't see it? You stop disguising and just beat the hell out of them.

[Interviewer]

How much of it was talent? How much of it was psychological games with the opponent? How much of it was preparation? Where would you rank those three?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, talent wise, we had a lot. We had a lot. We was loaded and we started to load up as we started to go. Remember, sizzle wasn't even there when 2000. When we made that run with 2000, Michael McCrary and Rob Burnett. And I won't even say it was talent. I would just purely say men made up their mind that another side that had different colors on was not going to beat us one on one. It's impossible. When we came in defense, we clicked the button and we say, why is he blocking you one on one? We're not here to get. We're not here to be blocked. One on one. All right, we're going to play. We gonna play a four man rush, which means we're gonna be light in the box, which means you got to beat your man, then go do something else. Then I started this thing at practice where we got to touch the ball every play, every play. And that lasted until I retired every defensive player on that field from 98 to the time I retired. Every play. Yeah. Practices was longer because I don't care if it was a pass. We're running to the ball. Goose. I need you running to the ball, Sam. Yeah, it was a culture. It was a culture.

[Interviewer]

Break that down for me. Everybody's got to run to the ball. Why is that important?

[Ray Lewis]

Because it's a mentality. Turn, go, turn, go. Don't turn it. I can show you football. If you ever watch the game with me, you'll be like, why are you so mad? Cause it's disgusting what you see. Nobody on the same page. Everybody. One running this way, one running this. That's why so many big plays happen. If you're a great defense, a great defense, you can be totally wrong as a great defense. And if they run a play that y' all ain't never seen, if everybody wrong, you right. That's how tough a great defense is. If we're all playing pass, then you gonna get passed. It was just when the thing that you miss, I think now in today's games. Back then, there were coaches on the field. Rod Wilson was one of the smartest people I've probably ever played in my freaking life. Played with Steelers. Yeah. Then he. Remember he came to Baltimore, and then I was blessed, right?

[Interviewer]

It was fun to watch.

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh.

[Interviewer]

I'm telling you, he was so much fun to watch.

[Ray Lewis]

He was an Assassin. Yeah, right. He didn't think about nothing else. You know, black belt and all that stuff. Like, he was. And he was the one, when he first got to Baltimore, he says, I've never seen leadership from a young man like this. So what do you want to do? What do you want to do? And I said, paco. I called him Paco for a reason. I'm going to keep him. I won't disclose that right now. He said, what do you want to do? I said, I'm going to tell you straight up. I would be the greatest. I would be the most dominant defensive player to ever play this game. He was like, really? I was like, trust me. But then off the field, had to align with the mentality. So Rod. Rod knew of what, 22, 23 years old. So he knew every Fridays the younger guys would go out, right? We'd get cars and go to D.C. and whatever, whatever. And two times he walks up to me, he says, get in the car. He said. He said, meet me in the weight room. And I go in the weight room. And he's like, we're gonna meet in here every morning after camp, before camp. I said, what? You work out before practice? He was like, absolutely. He said, the next Friday, when you go out, when you go to dc, I'm going with you. I was like, all right, come on now.

[Interviewer]

You guys are 10 years apart.

[Ray Lewis]

We 10 years apart. We go to D.C. we get to D.C. probably 9, 45, 10 o' clock. He's tapping me on my shoulder. At 11, it's time to go. I'm like, really? We just got here. Like, this is horrible.

[Interviewer]

This is Friday night.

[Ray Lewis]

This is Friday night.

[Interviewer]

So you can at least rest Saturday for game Sunday.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, it's before game Sunday. So he's like. He did it twice with me. And then I said, you know what? I get it. I get it. I'm done. Because I get it. You're basically saying I'm wasting my time going all the way down there, trying to drive all the way back. Okay, great, great. And that was the last time I went. He went that one last time with me. And I was like, all right, I get it. I gotta be a professional.

[Interviewer]

Done, done, done. So the crew. Cause this is a bunch of Alphas in the same team together, right? How did they know? What did you do to earn the moral authority of, I'm the leader of all these alphas. How did that happen?

[Ray Lewis]

So I was very vocal. By 98, 98, I had took over the culture. And culture was cool. Like, Marcha Broder was our first coach. And then Brian Billick came in. By the time Billick came in, our culture was set. That's our leader. That's who we're following. And it ain't changing from there. Once you started to add pieces, like Rod and all these other pieces, it started to become really attractive because we was, like, from an IQ level, we was like, man, do you know? Nobody cannot move the ball on us like pb. We. We was actually negotiating in. In film rooms. They will not get a yard. I'm talking about one yard. Get. Give somebody this football and run that same play. And I'm looking at Sam and Goose saying, and you think he's gonna block you come off slip, you climb up to me and you let him. No way, bro. No way. So I'm saying Marvin. Marvin started to realize, I don't have to coach them. I really don't. He used to be a me sometimes. And sometimes we'll do some stuff crazy. And I would like. I said, mark, coaches, man. Y' all gone ahead. Coaches get up and walk out. I get up there, bro. Y'. All. What? What? You. Are you freaking kidding me? And it used to get, like, heated. Heated. But we loved each other so much that we had to go through the hard corrections.

[Interviewer]

How do you call each other out? What's the method of call out?

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, it's. You call out exactly what it is, bro. Don't you ever sell me out there like that again.

[Interviewer]

Game like that.

[Ray Lewis]

Just like that. It's simple.

[Interviewer]

So if a guy fights back and says, what are you talking about? I.

[Ray Lewis]

No, no, no. If it's fighting is one thing I'm talking about guessing. I'm talking about doing something that, you know, is totally against the defenses, the defense's mythology. Like, we had a defense and we built the defense. You got to remember, we went. We went 50. We went 50 straight games without seeing 100 yard rushing.

[Interviewer]

And you guys in 2000 broke that one record, right? The. The fewest points given ever. Yeah, yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

And yards, we were a problem.

[Interviewer]

Did you say 50 games? No. 100 yards?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. Straight.

[Interviewer]

Stop.

[Ray Lewis]

Look it up.

[Interviewer]

50 games, no 100 yards.

[Ray Lewis]

Look it up.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my God.

[Ray Lewis]

And you know who that streak started with? Who? Baris Sanders. You know who it ended with? Who? Corey Dylan. Wow.

[Interviewer]

Cincinnati. Corey was Cincinnati.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

And Corey had a 278 game. Did he have a two? I think he had a 278 game.

[Ray Lewis]

250 games. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

50 games.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. Straight. Look at it. Write it down. Holy. Write it down.

[Interviewer]

And so Rob, can you do me a favor?

[Ray Lewis]

50 games in a row over, over three plus seasons, man.

[Interviewer]

Are you. And by the way, who did you guys face? So you face Barry.

[Ray Lewis]

Hold on.

[Interviewer]

Corey Dillon. Who were the running back?

[Ray Lewis]

Hold on. Jerome Bettis. Twice. Corey Dillon, twice. Eddie George. Twice.

[Interviewer]

That's an important one.

[Ray Lewis]

Very important. Very important. Yeah, man, we had that, we had that bullet and, and the other one was Fred Taylor, man.

[Interviewer]

Was he Jackson.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. We had a dog conference when you talk, and then back in the day, they run the ball 45 times. It's not, it's no secret. This is old school. I back. Give me a full back. Yeah, damn.

[Interviewer]

See, I didn't know this. I didn't know the 50 games in a row. No 100 yards.

[Ray Lewis]

No.

[Interviewer]

Who, who, who, who did you face yourself, where you're like, ah, these guys are not only capable, but they're also smart. And, and they're. They impose fear as well. Who was that opponent?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. So I think one thing we always got the. Because I played in three different eras, so it's kind of like what era? Right.

[Interviewer]

17 years to play.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. Yes. And when we were first, when I first got there, our nemes was like Jacksonville, you know, they had Keenan McCarthy, Mark Brunel, Tim Jackson. Oh, man, they had Fred, they had Jesus, Tony Boselli. They were loaded. They went to the AFC championship their first year. And then it started to switch into like Tennessee became this thing. But Pittsburgh, we just Hated Pittsburgh, naturally. And then I think the biggest rivalry, then it turned into the Colts for a while because we was, you know, in the afc, NFC champion. I mean, AFC championships. And then, Then it just became whoever thought that they could actually have a good day on our defense. So that's what the whole thing was like, 2005, 2006, 2006. Stats. Stupid. Sick. I gave Peyton Manning five field goals in the division around and lost. Yeah. Yeah. We had a rule. We had an unwritten rule. Never leave your brother. Never leave your brother. That's why I think, like, when you watch the game now, man, it suffers because the way when I. When I transitioned from Rob Wilson and then was blessed with Ed Reed, Jesus, I'm like, lord, you, you gotta be looking out for me if that's the football players you got me playing with. But it was a mentality.

[Interviewer]

Ed was also fun to watch.

[Ray Lewis]

Yay.

[Interviewer]

He was fun to watch.

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, gosh.

[Interviewer]

But are you. I get. I asked Kobe, I said, kobe, how many times would you go to, you know, management upstairs and say, hey, we gotta go get Barnes. We gotta go get this, we gotta go get that. How many times did you recruit in the game? It's like, hey, Ed, when are you coming down here? Would you do that? Would you recruit players? Every year during the game?

[Ray Lewis]

Every year.

[Interviewer]

Who, Who?

[Ray Lewis]

Everybody. I did. I did most of my recruiting at the Pro Bowl. So that's when the Pro bowl was the Pro bowl, right? So a lot of the guys was coming up. Their contracts was coming up. A lot of guys didn't, you know, want to play. I was literally 30 seconds from Peyton Manning saying yes to come to Baltimore. Me and him sat. We sat in Hawaii and we sitting at the bar and we stayed there for hours. And I'm saying, look, if I put you on one side, you leave me on the other side, and me and you go at this thing together. What the freak. I sold him. I sold him. I sold him. I sold him. And then at the last minute, he ended up staying home. But so. And I did follow up with him on yes, Man, I follow up with everybody, Pete. God darn it, I, I, that was the one thing. So the one thing in my whole career this. Another statue be crazy about. The one thing in my whole career that was just crazy is we couldn't find one solid quarterback when we were dominant. Dominant. We had journeymen in and out. I almost want to say, in my career, probably 20, 21, 22 quarterbacks. Wow. Yeah, wow.

[Interviewer]

I remember you guys. Nobody looked at you Guys from the offense side, defense would win the championships with you. And if you guys had a decent quarterback, great.

[Ray Lewis]

How many.

[Interviewer]

Let me, let me, let me put it to you this way. If you had, if you had a Peyton, if you had a Roethlisberger, if you had one of those guys, how many would you guys have won in those 17 years?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes, that's. You know what, like, that's always the tough thing with sports. Right. Because what made us even hungrier is because what we didn't have so we knew we weren't going to score, you know, like. Yeah. So see, that's 13. And that's just, and that's just pure. That's just guys who was like, name the starters.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

That you actually seeing. But the guys that was under them that actually started.

[Interviewer]

Trent Dilfer was a good. When I, When I watch him do his. What do you call it? Commentating. Yeah, he does actually very good job. But you'll see guys take shots at him. As a guy that won as a starting quarterback, you know, I don't know how many yards he had that season. 2800. Can you pull up that season what Trent Dilfer's stats look like for that year? Type in 2000. Trend deal for stats. And by the way, he seems like the nicest guy. I don't want to feel like we're taking shots at the guy.

[Ray Lewis]

And this is why I'm going to, you know. Yeah. I'm going to make sure I.

[Interviewer]

There's no way that's the stats. Yeah, no way that's the stats. Wait, no, no.

[Ray Lewis]

But see, you gotta so understand. But you gotta understand something.

[Interviewer]

Go a little bit lower. I'm not trying to be funny.

[Ray Lewis]

This is. Don't do my boy like that. Listen to me.

[Interviewer]

In the. In four games, he threw through three touchdowns, one interception, 590 yards completion is 49.4.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

He'S got a rink.

[Ray Lewis]

So look, this is why it worked. He was the perfect person at the right time. Right. We knew where we were limited at. We knew it, but we had two animals. We had Jamal Lewis fresh off his rookie year. We had Priest Holmes backing him up. Our offensive line was steady as they can be. We had the right tight ends. We had Quadri outside. We had Jermaine Lewis on the inside with special teams. So two out of three categories we're going to win every week, which is special teams and defense. Guaranteed we're going to get one punt return to the crib and we going, we going to beat you up on offense. Right. I Think we gave up. Well, four shutouts. We had four shutouts that year and probably gave up another six points.

[Interviewer]

By the way, I got Corey Dillon, right? Corey Dillon was 278. Jamal Lewis had a 295 game.

[Ray Lewis]

295. Yeah. Against Cleveland.

[Interviewer]

So Priest Holmes was with us. What. What. What era of his career was he with you?

[Ray Lewis]

The. The first part of it. We. We trees. Priest came to us first, and then.

[Interviewer]

He went to kc.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. We let Priest go for.

[Interviewer]

Why did you let Priest.

[Ray Lewis]

Ah, God darn it, Patrick. Come give me a headache right now. Seriously. Seriously.

[Interviewer]

Priest was a freaking.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. So. So remember this, though. He was. He was spotty because Jamal was so dominant. So he was spotty. So he was used to. But what. Never really utilized the way they let him lose. Yes. In case he. So by the time he got to kc, he had so much knowledge, so much experience playing behind J. Lou with us going to win a Super Bowl. Then by the time they. They. They. They got a complete football player by the time.

[Interviewer]

Now, by the way, nothing to take away from Jamal. It's not like Jamal wasn't. He was the. Maybe the best running back that year. Yeah. With the type of numbers that he put up. So. So interesting. So again, opponents wise.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Who did. Who go back, you know, because, you know, winners, they don't necessarily remember the victories. They remember that one game that got away that they should have won. Who did you lose to? Where you're like, you know, we should have never lost to those guys. And Maybe now you're 50 years old, you're at a different age. Life is at a different age. You know, you're looking at a different way, but as a competitor, you know, your highlights are public. Everybody sees them. Clips on any given day can go viral.

[Ray Lewis]

Right.

[Interviewer]

What was the game or two where you're like, should have never lost that one.

[Ray Lewis]

Dang. See, that's what I was saying, man. It's. It's so many. I played in so many games and so many meaningful games that. Like the one. The one I told you about against Peyton. So Rex was the. Rex Ryan.

[Interviewer]

Five field goals.

[Ray Lewis]

Five field goals. So Rex Ryan was the D coordinator.

[Interviewer]

Man, the foot fetish. Rex Ryan.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. And I come in. So I tell Ed, I said, bro, I just got to watch a film before. I promise you. 19 straights, you know, at 19, 20 hours straight. He was like, bro, why you. Why you tearing up? Because I was like, peyton ain't scoring. He's like, bro, you that mad? I said, bro, listen to me. He's. There's no way in hell Peyton is coming into Baltimore and getting an in zone in Baltimore. So Ed was like, show me what you're talking about. So I sat Ed down, started breaking it down. I said, look, when he do this, da, da, da, da. When he shifts. Oh, man. Ed was like, oh, my gosh. We got it. Next thing, I go to Rex. I said, rex, listen to me. I guarantee you, if you trust me with the defenses that you going to call and I'mma call, they will not get in the end zone. He says, if I. If they don't get in the end zone, I give you my paycheck. I said, rex, they won't score. We get on the one yard line. We get on the one yard line with Steve McNair and Jamal Lewis in the backfield, and we pop past and throw an interception. Stop. I'm not exaggerating. God, I'm not exaggerating. Wow. My heart has never been broken in a game that I know. We dominated him in his prime, man. It was poetic what we was doing on defense. And it was like, what? Like, just stick to the strip. Run the freaking ball, Seattle. Run the ball against New England. What the freak? This is still football. You need one yard. I'm going to trust Jamal Lewis or Marshawn lynch touching that ball everybody, every time.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Lewis]

But people want to get smart. But that game, I drove home with my kids, man. I got a life lesson out of that game. I drove home with my kids and my mom was so mad at me. She got to the house and my kids walked in and she pushed me up against the garage. She said, look at me. And I was like, ma, not right now. I'm telling. She said, you better look at me, boy. Stop playing me. I was like, okay, Ma, what's. What's going on? She was like, do you understand what you just done to your kids and the whole family? Nobody in the car said a word because how mad you were. She said, did you do everything you. Did you prepare at every level? Were you prepared? Did you give everything you had? I said, yeah, Ma. She said, well, then hold your head up high. Oh, better said than swallowed.

[Interviewer]

But I met your mom. Your mom was. Your mom was at the house.

[Ray Lewis]

No.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah, I met your mom. We. She played a very big role in your life and. And what happened with that? But yeah, interesting when you. When you. When you think about these types of moments as a competitor, because as a fan, you know, you're like, oh, man, they shouldn't give him that. But at least we won the game, you know. But as a coach or a player who spend the 17 hours preparing before the game be like, no, no, you don't understand. I didn't want that touchdown. Yeah. I wanted to make a statement because this guy. Is this after he said no of to coming to Baltimore or is this pre.

[Ray Lewis]

This is after.

[Interviewer]

So this is. So this was personal. Oh my God. By the way, is it true that. You know, why is it true about the Rex Ryan foot fetish stuff? He talks about it, you know, he says something. Does he say stuff like that around the players?

[Ray Lewis]

Where did you say this? Man? That's the one person that. Whatever he thinks he's going to say it. Seriously, it doesn't matter.

[Interviewer]

He's made for TV by the way.

[Ray Lewis]

He is made for. He's made for life, period. I'm telling you. He's out of all a lot of my coaches, man.

[Interviewer]

He Chick had great feet. I'm looking. Did he say that right? He didn't say that. Did he really said if a chick's got good feet, I'm looking. There is no way he said that.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes, he did. Rex said, I promise you. He said, wow. I think there's a clip.

[Interviewer]

My wife's feet. Like I. I don't know what it is, but if a chick's got jacked, jacked up feet, I'm out. I don't care how gorgeous, I'm out. I don't know what the hell it is, but it's like some people are boob guys. Was he fun guy too?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Was he?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. Yes.

[Interviewer]

Who was the toughest? Who had the highest expectation? Who was like, you know, nothing was ever enough?

[Ray Lewis]

Marvin.

[Interviewer]

Marvin, really?

[Ray Lewis]

Marvin? Yeah. Marvin built. Marvin built that engine like. Cause he. He didn't take nothing, like from no one. And that's why I say. That's why I think we. We grew into like respecting each other a certain way as men. And that's why I think everybody in that locker room started to kind of feel that halfway through the season for sure.

[Interviewer]

Did he win a chip or. No, he didn't win the. Marvin.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, he was.

[Interviewer]

So Marvin's the one.

[Ray Lewis]

He was the General.

[Interviewer]

But. But then when did Bill coach right up. So who did you win with? You won with the two coaches that won were who?

[Ray Lewis]

Billick and Harbo. Billick came in 99, 2000. Remember Ted March was gone.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Ray Lewis]

Billet came in.

[Interviewer]

I remember him when he came in. Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

Left Marvin the same. I mean left all the defense the same. We we was picking up a bully by the time he got there. And then 2000, that was the year. That was the year.

[Interviewer]

So. So he never won a championship, though. Marvin never won it as a head coach.

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, no, not a head coach.

[Interviewer]

No, Never as a head coach.

[Ray Lewis]

No. Because then he went to Cincinnati, Right? Yeah. And.

[Interviewer]

And so he is kind of like a. Would it. Would an example of Marvin be a Mark Jackson or a Dungy?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. More on the dungeon side, but, yeah, for sure. He's just. He's just one of those brains man. Like, his brain was dedicated, and he was more of. Even to men, he was more of a father than he was a coach.

[Interviewer]

So I know he was.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Quiet strength, you know?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. Yeah. Td.

[Interviewer]

He built Tampa Bay right before he left then.

[Ray Lewis]

Yep. Then Gruden came.

[Interviewer]

Gruden came. Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So that's interesting when you. When you think about these coaches. So I found a clip, Rob, if you want to find this clip, the clip on one of the best clips from Hard Knock, Hard Knocks. Remember when we would watch this as fans? You want to play this one here? Maybe you haven't seen this in a while. Go for it. Look at this.

[Ray Lewis]

Too many times.

[Interviewer]

Big boy moving like that.

[Ray Lewis]

Damn.

[Interviewer]

This episode is brought to you by Lifelock.

[Ray Lewis]

When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID and contact details.

[Interviewer]

It's just one of the many places that has your personal info, and if.

[Ray Lewis]

Any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft.

[Interviewer]

LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix.

[Ray Lewis]

It, guaranteed, or your money back.

[Interviewer]

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[Ray Lewis]

Mama papa. Mi cuer po crece a un ridmo alarm. See? And that. So that's what I'm telling you about. What had happened to the culture? It was a culture shift. When those young guys got there, they were like, it's five lions over there that we do anything they say. Anything they say. And that's why I say by the time we got to probably the fourth game, pb, we have figured it out. Once Jacksonville put up. Jimmy smith put up 222 yards on us. And I was so pissed off because we put our smallest corner, Dwayne Starks, in a bad position playing cover ones and all these different things. And after that game, probably the rest of the year, we may have blitz, what, maybe seven to ten times. If that. If that. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What was Shannon Sharp like as a teammate?

[Ray Lewis]

What? Shannon was the hardest Worker, him and Rob was very similar because they, they came from the old school culture and him, him already winning Super Bowls. From an offensive perspective, he became Mr. Automatic. Right? Like when Trent needed a play, they going to Shannon, right? Cause you know, our receivers was good, Quadri and Stokely and all those boys. But when you needed a play, Shay gonna give you a play. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Was he like 24, 7 in the gym? Was he like non stop training, like more than anybody else?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. He, him. I'm telling him and Rob were identical. And definitely in my young career, they were like. It was a, it was more of a. They was. Their standard was already set. So who they are, how they train, the reason why they train, the reason why you get up every day, has nothing to do with football, has everything to do with who they are as a man. And him and Rod was very similar. Now the problem with him and Rod is. And because me being so young, because us three started rolling really hard when we went away. We was there. I was the mediator. Because those two could not have a conversation without a full fight, full out flight fight that they arguing about every. Who. Him and Rod every day.

[Interviewer]

About what?

[Ray Lewis]

Every. Anything, anything.

[Interviewer]

Like real arguments.

[Ray Lewis]

Like it's, it's the craziest thing you've ever seen in your life. And then five seconds later I jump in and say, guys, cut this out. We can't do this. We go back. They go back. Okay.

[Interviewer]

So even back. Did you have an idea? Like when you're playing with guys and you're thinking, post NFL career, do you sit there and say, this guy's going to be a coach, this guy's going to be a commentator, this guy's going to be a business guy. This guy's going to, you know, be trouble after football because I don't think he has anything to do after football. Did you guys think about that or never crossed your mind?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. It's two pronged. But back in we. When I first got in the league, the one thing that was, I think, common around the league, a common thread, was the only thing on your mind was football. Because it was a, it was a battle that you enjoyed because on Saturday mornings you used to get up and says, who I'm knocking out today? Like, who's getting knocked out today? Who's not getting 100 yards a day? Right. So everything else may have been talked about, but in one area it was, it was old school, man. Like, for me to play in pro bowls with Junior Seau, Derek Thomas, Dale Carters, Reggie, like Wow. It was the different culture. Oh, geez.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. So. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So I don't think Reggie. Reggie was. Reggie was grown man. Yeah, grown. Derek's. Derek Thomas had six sacks in a game, I think, in college. Right. He had six sacks and some. Some number like that. But Shannon Sharp, did you think he was one day going to be a good TV guy? Personality?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So you knew he was made for tv.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And would he say he's going to do it?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes, he had. He had already started prepping.

[Interviewer]

How much before he retired?

[Ray Lewis]

He'd been started.

[Interviewer]

Oh, so he's known he's going to be doing that.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So you're not surprised by the success he's having with his podcast and TV and.

[Ray Lewis]

No.

[Interviewer]

Him and Skip and Stephen a. All that stuff?

[Ray Lewis]

No, I'm not surprised. I'm. I'm shocked at his content. I. I wouldn't in a million years, the things that Shannon has said now or did now, I would never believe that Shannon will say or do any of this.

[Interviewer]

Like what?

[Ray Lewis]

Simply, I take drinking Shannon. In my entire career, I've never saw Shannon with a drink ever. Like, it was against the law. Right. Because he had some, you know, some stuff in his family that he didn't want to follow that. And. Yeah. And then so I kind of started to watch him. And then we kind of went our own separate ways. Because I'm like, you're going to take that route? I can't go that route. Never can go that route. And that route is. Is to become so worldly that you become popular because you're. You're talking about ignorance. Right. A lot of times, a lot of these gossip conversations that they having and bringing up all this stuff. I'm not going to do that to nobody. I'm not. I'm not in the business for that. I'm in life to try to teach people what does it mean to be a better man or get back to the kingdom, you know, And a lot of times, like. And a lot. A lot of the guys get in trouble with these podcasts and things, man. Because everybody wants the follower, everybody wants to be popular, everybody wants to make money. But that's a. That's a tight. That's a tightrope into what you call influence and popularity. Right. The devil has the ability to make you popular. God has the ability to give you influence. That when people see you, they see an image of him. And that's the thing for me, that started to switch with. With not just Shannon, but just a couple of people. I'M like, wow, you will switch out like that, really? And I would never ever. Why? Because of the respect that I have for my mother, my daughters, my granddaughters life period. Like. And I think men, given these new platforms, we've overrode what the platform is actually for. The platform is supposed to help somebody find a new direction. We don't help. Everybody just gets on like, everybody's talking now. Everybody got a podcast. Everybody, Everybody's the, is the new marriage coach. Everybody's the new relationship coach. And ain't nobody coaching themselves. Because when you, if you were coaching yourself when it says power of life and death is found in the tongue, then go back and check out a couple of episodes and ask yourself, do you give life or do you give death? And that's why me personally, yeah, I kind of do my own thing, stay in my own lane.

[Interviewer]

When you, when you saw the, I'm sure you saw this incident, only fans the 19 year old girl, 50 million ESPN, all the stuff that happened. Did you and him at all, Spike, did you reach out that he reach out to you for.

[Ray Lewis]

No, no, I didn't. We don't have, we, we're not, we don't, we don't have that relationship like that. You know what I'm saying? When we, when I was younger, we had that relationship. But you know, Shannon, Shannon just kind of did some really awkward things, right? And he, and I told him years ago when we was doing TV together, some stuff came up and I said, bro, you know me, I'm the last one to get in anything, bro. But for you to do that, yeah, I, it's. I wouldn't trust you again. What's going on? Everyone, it's your man, Sugar Ray Lewis. Listen, I'm on my neck, I'm trying to connect. I don't care what it is. Let's say sports, let's say life, let's say leadership, let's say hope, faith, worry, fear, whatever it is, let's chat, let's do it. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon, period. You know, because that's a man, a brother. A brother don't do the stuff he done, you know what I'm saying? Like, no brother does that to a brother. You always looking out for each other. So that's why me and him ain't even spoke. And what was funny was when this podcast got ready, when he got ready to do this podcast, the first person he called was me. First person he called, I never forget. I was sitting in Dallas, my son had just passed From Overdose. And he was like, bruh, man, I'm thinking about doing this podcast. You want to do this podcast with me? And I'm like, bro, look, my mind. I'm going through a lot. I got a lot going on. And more than that, just personally, I don't think our messages match. Not. Not on this side of life. Like, they just don't. You want to do other stuff and talk about gossip stuff. I want to. I'm trying to bless people. Yeah. So, yeah, I ain't talk to Shannon.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

However long since that's been 10, 10 plus years. We saw each other at. We saw each other at the Bullies where we was filming Baltimore Bullies. And we saw each other and we spoke, but cordial. Yeah, come on. I don't care who you are. I forgive my enemies. I pray for my enemies. His name is in my bible. You know what I'm saying? I don't try to be rude to somebody. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Did you see the. Did you see the. The Sterling Sharp on stage finally going into Hall?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What was you.

[Ray Lewis]

When you see.

[Interviewer]

Because he talked about it three years ago or something, and then boom, the brothers on stage.

[Ray Lewis]

But he was so we. Oh, my gosh. So Sterling, man, to somebody that was that great. Right? And actually just get washed in with the errors. That's all that happened. A lot of these older guys, they just get washed in with the errors. Where guys are seeing so much young talent that you forget about somebody who was that dominant.

[Interviewer]

He was a monster. 85. Was he number 85?

[Ray Lewis]

84.

[Interviewer]

84.

[Ray Lewis]

84, man. But he might. Sternum was probably one of my favorite people to watch. Definitely out of Green Bay.

[Interviewer]

What is that, Rob?

[Ray Lewis]

I believe those are his career stats.

[Interviewer]

No, that's not career. Because he would do more. 17 game average. 17 game average, damn. That's actually. That's insane. You break down his career and you break it down to 17 game. That's what he averaged. Oh, my God, that's great. That good for him. Yeah. I mean, he. Do you think he gets in if. If Shannon doesn't give that speech at the hall of Fame? He says, how's it feel knowing I'm a Hall of Famer and I'm the second best player in my family? You think Shannon still gets in three years later? You mean Sterling gets in the. Shannon doesn't?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, I think he. I think he does.

[Interviewer]

You think he still does?

[Ray Lewis]

I think he does.

[Interviewer]

Okay, Got it.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

When he gave that speech, Shannon, I'm like, look, that was, you know, it was A great message to hear him give with. With what happened there, by the way. I looked up the other day. I wanted. I didn't know this. Again, as we're going through this, I'm going back and digging up a bunch of different things.

[Ray Lewis]

So.

[Interviewer]

Did he ever play against Dion? No. But you were teammates. I didn't know you guys were teammates. Were you and Deion Sanders teammates?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. Prime came to Baltimore. That was one. Another recruit I had. I was recruitment.

[Interviewer]

When he came in, you know, was he still. When you would watch him, he, like, still has it, or was he, like, 80%?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah, he. Yeah, he was way over 80. Yeah, he was still about 90%.

[Interviewer]

He was still at 90%.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What was he like as a teammate? Was it a fun teammate?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. Listen, what was beautiful is where he was in his career and to come. There was a blessing to him because me and Ed at this time. Come on. We assassins over there, bro. Like, we are. We are magical on designing defenses up to do this. And he. He came up, he was like, man, y'. All. Y' all got full ownership like this. Yeah, bro. We play a different style defense over here. I was like, so, look, stop playing. That's why I used to always tell him, because he loved playing all the time. I said, prime, stop playing. We're not playing. Like, this is serious. But he was such a. Me and him have a really different relationship, which is the most amazing relationship ever. But I think playing with him was. It was dynamic to see someone that can look at you and say, today won't be a good day for you.

[Interviewer]

He.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. He would look at somebody and be like, bro, don't worry about it. I got that.

[Interviewer]

You've seen him. You've seen him say that.

[Ray Lewis]

Listen, man, he's. He's wired differently. Prime. Like, he. We. Our language is so similar because we. That's what I. Yeah, we think. It's like, me and Kobe. Me and Kobe. Sit down, man. Neither one of us are blank. We play Guitar Hero, and right before we. We just sitting there looking at each other. I'm like, bro, I'm not blanking. And he just started laughing. I'm like, bro, we the same. We just. We don't know nothing.

[Interviewer]

You guys play Guitar Hero? Seriously?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. I flew out there, like, mess with him with Guitar Heroes. He does, man. Oh, man. But that convo that me and him had in that back, man, I'm telling you, like, you know, because we came in together at 96, and we started actually going to the mental of what he really was thinking about. And I said, I guarantee you, there's no difference in what you're thinking and what I'm thinking.

[Interviewer]

You're telling that to Kobe. You guys came 96. He's picked 13th. I think you're 26th. But both of you guys become the best of that era. Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

I'm telling you. And then what was crazy was it's like every time we saw each other, it was always this certain thing we had for each other. It was like. And he's the whisper something while I whisper something, and we look at each other and just laugh and walk off. And I was like, bro. You know? He's like, you still do, bro. You know what I'm about.

[Interviewer]

Give me Kobe Story. What Kobe Story do you have?

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, man, it's. It's not a. It's not a story. It's more of a. It's more of something that confirmed that when you're that guy, go be that guy. So he was in. They played, and I came to the game, and I went in the locker room, whatever, and I walked in, and he looks at me, and he was like, assassin. I said, bro, it's one way. I said, I'll tell you what. See who has the longest career with the same team, and nobody don't know this. But that was crazy because that was one. That was one of the things that we discussed. Don't ever leave home, no matter what. So I remember telling him two of the stories that broke my heart, which was Joe Montana leaving. Can't leave. Leaving Casey. Yeah. Going from 49ers to Casey broke my heart.

[Interviewer]

Serious?

[Ray Lewis]

No, I. I 90. You got to think, now, this is before I had made it anything. Joe Montana was my favorite player on the football field.

[Interviewer]

A defensive guy has the offensive guy's favorite player.

[Ray Lewis]

You got to remember, my defensive probably started fully in college. I played offense 90% of the time in high school. Yeah. Come on, Pete.

[Interviewer]

What position?

[Ray Lewis]

Running back? Kickoff return? Punt return. If I touch it, I'm scoring. P. I was a bad boy. Yeah, but that's. That's how me offensively. And then by the time we got on, like, from the defensive side, it was just like, what the freak? Because I play safety. I never played linebacker in Miami. I played. So my sophomore year, my senior year in high school, my sophomore, junior year, I played safety, right? Strong safety. We get in the jamboree, guy get hurt, and my coach comes to me and says, I need you to go play linebacker. And I says, I don't know how to play linebacker. He said, just find the football.

[Interviewer]

See, I don't know this story.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

Senior.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. This is my senior year. I'm coming off my junior season. Safety. I was a little slim, so I wouldn't. I wasn't the linebacker prototype. Because I was 180. Right. Because I wrestle. 189.

[Interviewer]

You're 180 in college?

[Ray Lewis]

180. High school.

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah. 180. But what are you in college? Senior year?

[Ray Lewis]

My junior year. I left my junior year to 220.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so you're two. You're a big boy now.

[Ray Lewis]

220. Yeah. I was still too skinny for that. That league. Yeah. Remember that league was running the ball 45 times. You needed to be 250 or better. Seriously, you could not.

[Interviewer]

Who's the coach that said, go play linebacker?

[Ray Lewis]

Coach Ernest Joe. Because we. Because we lost the linebacker. Jason Bamberger went down and he says, go play linebacker. And I went to the jamboree, which was one. We only played in one half. And I think I had like 17 tackles. So I came back. Yep, that's my guy. That guy right there.

[Interviewer]

Lakeland.

[Ray Lewis]

When I tell you that guy right there changed my life. He. Oh, man, he was the toughest coach ever. Ever. Coach Ernest Joe. And then after that, man, I said, I came to the sideline and I said, I'm never going back to safety ever again.

[Interviewer]

Why you fell in love with the position?

[Ray Lewis]

Because I was like, I am closer to the freaking football. Like, that's where I'm born to. That's where I'm made to be. And he was like, okay, stay there. So I stayed there.

[Interviewer]

So two things you said. One, Montana switching teams. Who's the other guy that switched teams?

[Ray Lewis]

Michael Jordan.

[Interviewer]

Oh, really? Oh, Washington.

[Ray Lewis]

Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other. When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a 4 liter jug. When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping. Oh, good. They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia trip planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip. Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool. Whatever. You were made to outdo your holidays. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel. See, I was die hard, like, because I didn't have nothing else, but. But to go watch somebody do what they do. Like, you don't have nothing to eat at night, right? You're starving, I'm starving. I don't have Dad. I don't have none of that. So there are certain people on that other team of Joe Montana, my favorite was Roger Craig, right? But Michael Jordan in what he had done, and I'm watching what he's done. I said to myself, like, wow. And then the news come. They say, man, Jordan just got released and traded on the book. I said, who does that?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

And craziest stat, crazy enough stat. Since Michael Jordan departure, since Joe Montana. Joe Montana departure, neither franchise has ever won a Super bowl or a championship since.

[Interviewer]

San Francisco.

[Ray Lewis]

You ain't got to think of it. Steve Young was the only one. Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

So. So you're telling this to colby. You go 17, he goes, 20, 20. But. But there is a story. I don't know if you've shared a story or not. You got a phone call from a guy, another team, who's a very rich guy, who Denzel Washington just called out a few days ago saying, you haven't won one since 96 or whatever the year is.

[Ray Lewis]

He's talking about 95.

[Interviewer]

95. So did he. You told me this at dinner, I think, a couple months ago.

[Ray Lewis]

Y. It was a quick free agency thing for me. Steve, the owner of the Ravens, basically just said, look, I know what you're going to do. Take seven days, go hang out at my place and just relax, whatever. And I got a famous just opportunity. And I think. I think that's why me and Jerry is just. I think he respects it because I was like, do I leave Baltimore? Do I leave my legacy to come play in Dallas for three years? Nah, I'm never doing that. Ever.

[Interviewer]

Did you at all think about it?

[Ray Lewis]

No.

[Interviewer]

Oh, really?

[Ray Lewis]

No.

[Interviewer]

So no chance to change your mind? All the money in the world.

[Ray Lewis]

Listen, when I came into this business, me and j. O got off the plane in 1996. We walked in Owens Mills boulevard, and I stood right on there, and Jayo will tell you this exact story. I said, boy, can you imagine if we had the beginning of something? That's legendary, bro. We at the beginning. This is brand new.

[Interviewer]

You guys really had that, though. You guys really had that, though. And that's not easy to create.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. And it's like, so for me to ever even think about now when I started to see certain people, like die hard, I was a Jordan fan, but I was more of a Lakers fan because I was. James worthy was my favorite player of all time. Right? Big play worthy. And when I saw the Lakers start to make all of these different trades with people that I would be like, what? No, don't do that. Like, so then I was like, yeah, yeah. Me staying Home was the greatest thing that you'll ever appreciate. After 50, you don't have to wonder how many.

[Interviewer]

What's the most a player played with one team? Is it. What did Brady do with New England?

[Ray Lewis]

20.

[Interviewer]

Oh, he did do 20?

[Ray Lewis]

I think so.

[Interviewer]

Wow. So by the way, going back to. Did he do 20? He could have. He probably did something like that. He played there for quite some time. Yeah. Sanders, going back to Deion Sanders, even when he was there, was he still the fastest guy you ever saw in your life or had you seen somebody faster than him? Live?

[Ray Lewis]

Live. Yeah. Yeah. But we had. You guys had a wide receiver that was, man.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

She whiz. Yeah. I never saw nothing like J. Lou move. But you know, prime is running different then. But I'm telling you, I don't care what it's running different then or not, he was still Prime. That's a dude. That's a different dude. He's a different dude. He's built different. He thinks different. He. He sees life. It's all. Yeah, it's just different.

[Interviewer]

So I'm watching you and here's what I'm thinking to myself. I had a meeting with a guy today who just sold his business. He's got a painting business that he sold. 20 million bucks made money. He's down here, Florida. He's, you know, wanting to go into the consultation, starting a consulting firm. And he says, you know, I'm thinking about starting consulting firm. I said, tell me the knowledge of how much you have with the painting industry, commercial painting. And he just starts explaining it like science. And I said, you sure you want to leave this business? He says, yeah, I'm done.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

I say, you, you sure you don't want to go out of one more time? Yeah. Do you have a non compete only in the two states. The other 40 states, I don't have it. I said, see, if you took your knowledge to another place, could you start him? I would do it even bigger. Okay your know how you, you broke the record for the least amount of points scored as a defense? 50 games in a row, no hundred yards. Prime goes and becomes a coach.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Massive story with him becoming a coach. You're not going to use all that knowledge to go and be a def. Like even single. A bunch of these guys went in as defensive players, became coaches. You don't want to go do that. I know there were rumors.

[Ray Lewis]

I wouldn't take this the wrong way. I've had too many offers and what God has called me to do is bigger than just Football, it's bigger. And so the locker room now is bigger. Right. It's global. Because now I travel the world preaching the gospel. I have a different recruitment of knowledge of what does it mean to overcome redemption, fight, grit, worthiness, you know, and so I've entertained it too many times. And I've always said I got so much to give to the game, but then I realized I really got so much to give to life. And that is why I do everything that I do, you know, through philanthropy and all that other stuff.

[Interviewer]

You don't think you could do that with younger players coming up?

[Ray Lewis]

You don't think you could be one.

[Interviewer]

Hell of a college football coach or NFL coach?

[Ray Lewis]

You could.

[Interviewer]

And you press conference, doing prayers.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

All these opportunities with limelight.

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, the locker room is. It's amazing. It's amazing.

[Interviewer]

You don't want to get back into.

[Ray Lewis]

It, which is why I'm recruit. I'm recreating it again. I'm doing it. I'm building a whole new locker room in business because that's. That's what we're. So put like this. If. If the game suffered from one thing, it's just me. The game suffers from just, I think, the integrity of letting men be men. Right. So that's just my perspective. Right.

[Interviewer]

You talking about, like the new cheerleaders or what?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, well, no, I'm talking about, like, let men be men. Like, you can never take a jab out of. Out of. Out of boxing.

[Interviewer]

Oh, I got. I thought you were talking about the cheerleaders because they got male cheerleaders. No, I thought that's where you're going.

[Ray Lewis]

Another issue will not go down that road.

[Interviewer]

Got it?

[Ray Lewis]

Never. Never my concern. But it's. It's a. It's a certain lack of leadership that's missing. And when you watch these kids and when you watch all the things that's going on, they have nobody to reach out to. Nobody. Right. If you, if you, If I just. If I started screenshotting half of my request to you a week, you will be like, there's no way.

[Interviewer]

Because that many players in the game.

[Ray Lewis]

Players, Men.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

Kids. They're broken. They are absolutely broken, which is why you. You see why so many of them are committing suicides and going down the gang life route. It's just a bad cycle out there. And so I've entertained football and.

[Interviewer]

I'm.

[Ray Lewis]

Going to entertain it again. Just. Just not at what the level you're talking about.

[Interviewer]

You don't think so you would entertain college? Would you entertain college?

[Ray Lewis]

I entertain anything when it comes to the game. I like. I like it. I just.

[Interviewer]

I'm. I'm just listening. A part of it for me is. And maybe. And by the way, for the people that are watching this, if you got questions, you can manect. Ray Ray's on manect. And I'm sure it gets flooded with a bunch of messages. Rob. Let's make sure we put the link somewhere around here. But, you know, for me, it's to explain it the way you explain it in a form of science defense. If you did, let's just say you did get a team and a team allowed you to. Gave you the controls.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And you know how you had the rule, which was what? Give me the first 15 plays. If I don't screw. If I screw it up, I'll take your place. Right. And you were able to do that for 11 years, you said, right? Give or take. All right, so coach, let me, you know, let me do the thing, Marvin, and I'll do what I'm doing with defense. Okay, great. You know, hey, don't talk to me like that, please. If you're gonna do this, this is my story. What if you find a team and a team says, whatever you want to do with defense, do it your way?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

We'll give you three years.

[Ray Lewis]

But you can't.

[Interviewer]

Why not?

[Ray Lewis]

Because you can't tell somebody to go punch him in the mouth and don't care about what comes next. In college, you kicking kids out for making what you call targeting, that's not a target. A target is something that's not on the field that you target and you just. That does not supposed to be a part of that. No. Hell no. I am built to do that. Don't penalize me and then kick me out of the game and then tell me I can't come back for the second half either. Are you freaking kidding me? You're doing that to kids for making a play. Do this homework if you don't do nothing else. Every kid that's been kicked out of. That's been kicked out of a game. Tell me how many made it to the league. It's their only chance. Some of them are. It's their only chance. P. And you take away the physicality of football and you tell me I'm sitting in a spot too many times, and this is the narrative now. Oh, that's a terrible player. He's too aggressive. P. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. So as a coach, you think Somebody like Nick Saban will walk away if that was the same Nil. No. All of these things forever change what the locker room was built for. The locker room taught integrity. It taught true character. And now it's a free flow, right? Guys can get in the portal anytime they get ready, they can transfer. Oh, if you get mad at the coach and you don't want to stay there, I'm out, man. What the freak?

[Interviewer]

So you're talking about the way they're just letting players go from team to team to team where you can't build a legacy the way you guys build it. Build it so you don't like today's game on the way it's set up. I got it. So. So in a way, you're thinking, all right, I'm going to pour into these guys for four to five years, and you mean to tell me I can lose the two guys because you know they're going to say they don't want to be here and they're out. Got it. So don't you think you could be able to shape the mindset of those guys to be locked into you saying, guys, I want 10 years from you.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, you could. But once they let money in, you change that, right? Because now you get a text from your homeboy, which my sons, we sit around all the time. You get a text from your homeboy, he said, hey, man, they willing to give you a $2 million. And before you even talk to the coach, anyway you like, I'm getting in the portal tonight.

[Interviewer]

Got it?

[Ray Lewis]

That's how bad it is, right? If you think. If you listen to what Nick Saban said on, like, kind of like why he's walking away, like, there's no relationships or there's no. There's no more loyalty in relationships because loyalty says you come to work every day. My job is to challenge you. If a coach ain't talking to you, that's when you should have a problem. But nowadays, when coach talk to co with coaches talk or scream at a player, now, you take that personal. I never took it personal outside of saying, don't curse me. Right. I'm good with everything else. Coach me. Mike Singletary came to me. The first thing Mike Singletary said to me, I don't know how to coach a person like you. You know everything I said. Yes, you do. Teach me everything you know. He was like, what do you mean? I said, I'm gonna stay out the. I'm gonna stay out the practice. I met with Mike Singletary every Monday after every practice. And we did two things. We watched film and corrected any of the smallest mistake I made. And the first thing we did was Bible study.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Ray Lewis]

Every Monday night. Wow.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, man.

[Interviewer]

Good for him.

[Ray Lewis]

Because I want. No, I asked him. I'm like, I need you to teach me how to be a better man. Right.

[Interviewer]

And what, what, what, who? As a coach, where was he at? Was he an assistant? Was he a defensive quarter?

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, he was. He. He was linebackers coach. He was linebackers in Baltimore.

[Interviewer]

And then later on he went to San. Was it San Fran after that?

[Ray Lewis]

Yep. Head coach. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So. So then would you see yourself more as an. As a college coach or more as an NFL coach?

[Ray Lewis]

I'm telling you it is because I'm thinking longevity.

[Interviewer]

Like if I build something, they're out. So college, you're only going to get me for two years, right?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And then I'm out. So you can't really build the legacy. You will need to have more of a Knicks playbook, right?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

In the NFL, you may have me for five to 15 years.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. So. So I don't get emotional a lot. Right. But I get emotional when I see one of those players walking off that field because I know what 90% of them going back to. Either you're gonna give me a. Either you're gonna give me a chance to make it through college or you gonna send me to the streets. And so every time you take away that. And the game ain't gonna change now, we done got gambling involved in it, so why is the game gonna change? Players get hurt now and your bet doesn't even void out. You have to keep the bet. But this is. This guy. Career. Nah, they don't. They don't honor us for what we've done for the game. We made the game. You know, that's the difference of me and billionaires. You can be a billionaire and I can guarantee I can do what you've done. But there's a fact you can never do what I've done. That's what makes us different. That's why so many people are attracted to people who sacrifice everything. Bruce Lee's Michael Jordan, Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson. You can't, you can't, you can't. You don't make those, they make themselves.

[Interviewer]

Remember, Michael's a billionaire. Supposed to watch your lane. I don't want you to upset him because he's going to call you.

[Ray Lewis]

But did you hear what I said?

[Interviewer]

I know. I know what you said.

[Ray Lewis]

So Jordan. So Jordan basically Said the same thing.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

You cut me out of it. So I'm going to be able to do what you've done.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

Which is he Go build a billion dollar empire.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

But they can never do it. Jordan. Done.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. How's your relationship with them?

[Ray Lewis]

No, we are, bro. Q Omega Sci Fi till I die. We got we bros, man. We me, him, Shaq. We all bros. Steve Harvey said the Entertainer. We all. We all, bro. D.L. hughley. We got a very, very unique fraternity.

[Interviewer]

That's cool.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Kings of Comedy, man. I don't know how many times I watched Kings of Comedy.

[Ray Lewis]

I piss on myself every time.

[Interviewer]

Who's your favorite out of the four? Maybe you can't say it because they're your friends, but is there one you start off with?

[Ray Lewis]

Yes. I can tell you exactly who.

[Interviewer]

I can tell you who mine is.

[Ray Lewis]

Is my. Mine. Mine is the best one because. Not the best. I. I mimic him.

[Interviewer]

So when I came through, I know which one it is.

[Ray Lewis]

Who, Bernie. Yes, absolutely. I kill Bird. Like, people.

[Interviewer]

He died too young, man.

[Ray Lewis]

He died too young, man. When they first started the first Kings of Comedy, where do you think the first place was before they filmed it?

[Interviewer]

The first place, I'm assuming Baltimore.

[Ray Lewis]

It was in Baltimore and it was my birthday weekend.

[Interviewer]

So this is not the video. This is.

[Ray Lewis]

This is not the video. This is before they filmed was the first one in Baltimore. And I walked backstage and my security says. He says, bernie wants to meet you. You know, so I go backstage, and as soon as I walk backstage, I said, I'm looking for this mother. You know, somebody need to tell me something. You know, he put on my part guy in my house and said, you know, And I did. I did that in front of it. I did that in front of Bernie. And he cried. He cried.

[Interviewer]

He's the best.

[Ray Lewis]

He's so. Oh, my gosh. Have you ever saw Soul Man?

[Interviewer]

Of course.

[Ray Lewis]

Jesus.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, no, he is.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, he.

[Interviewer]

He did. What was the Baseball 3000. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was the Mr. 3000? Mr. 3000. But I think he was also in Transformers 1, if I'm not mistaken. He was the car salesman in Transformer 1.

[Ray Lewis]

Was he?

[Interviewer]

Yeah, he's the. If you go to Trend. That's Sam. Yeah. He sold the car.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. That's right.

[Interviewer]

He sold the car when the cars.

[Ray Lewis]

I love him.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, he is. He's. He's.

[Ray Lewis]

He'll forever be a legend.

[Interviewer]

He's one of a kind.

[Ray Lewis]

He is.

[Interviewer]

He's one of A kind. So the chances of you going back, quote, coaching, maybe, maybe not. So if I have some friends that are texting me saying, hey, should we call them? Should we not call them? Should they call you? Yeah, they should call you.

[Ray Lewis]

I entertain it.

[Interviewer]

You should call him. He's willing to take the call. You should call him. I would call him if I'm you. I think. I think. By the way, do you believe in dirty plays in the NFL? Do you actually, in your. In your era, do you think there were dirty plays? Helmet to helmet? You consider that dirty?

[Ray Lewis]

No. No.

[Interviewer]

You don't think helmet to helmet is dirty play?

[Ray Lewis]

No. You don't control a missile. You launch him. You can't control that, P. You can't tell a man in middle of the action, oh, guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna make the biggest play of the game, but I'm gonna turn my head to the left. I'm gonna make sure my body does not fall on his body. No way. You don't think like that. Let me. Let me give you an example. I see a running back. You don't saw most of my hits. I see a running back. I don't see him. I want his soul, P. I'm not P. I want his soul, P. I believe you. Right. So when I go through him like I'm trying to make an impression, that he will talk about me every Thanksgiving for the rest of his life, somebody gonna ask him a question. How does it feel to play against Ray Lewis? Yeah, man. Like, so anyway, but go.

[Interviewer]

But go back to it. So to you, Romanowski, not a dirty player.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes, yes, yes. He done some dirty things, for sure.

[Interviewer]

I mean, he will poke the guys.

[Ray Lewis]

He's done some dirty stuff. I'm not. I'm not that type of player.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so the. What do you call it? The fellow who hit Antonio Brown. Cincinnati Bengals.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Dirty play.

[Ray Lewis]

Dirty play.

[Interviewer]

So that's a dirty play?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Certain things is things that's outside of the context of the game.

[Interviewer]

Now, he may say was a missile. I'm a missile. What do you want me to do?

[Ray Lewis]

No, no, no, no. Missiles. Missiles have a job. What they're doing.

[Interviewer]

Targeting.

[Ray Lewis]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so you're not for targeting.

[Ray Lewis]

No, I'm not for targeting. But what I am for is the fairness of the game. I can show you. I'm telling you, P, if I sat with you for 10 minutes, I can show you at least 30 hits that the helmet never touched the crown. Pure shoulder, but you threw the flag anyway. And 80% of them stands as a targeting rule which kicks those kids out of college. You gonna kick my kids out of college, though? They're babies. No, don't do that. But you. Respectfully, a referee can make a wrong call and stay in the game. What's the difference? We make the game. So you're gonna take the people who make the game out of the game. Why? Why can you take them out? Because they're replaceable, but only by a number. They don't. They don't replace you by integrity. They. They replace you because of the position. Oh, I need another safety. Yeah, it's crazy.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. I had Antonio Brown here. We talked about the ct, and, you know, he got upset when I asked him about it. I was like, so tell me. You know, I'm good. Why would you ask me about that? Why would you ask me about it? And listen, I understand it's a sensitive subject, so I'm not one that sitting here. But it's so interesting that a guy like you who is in the game, defends the game, even though you have peers that were affected by it. But it's almost as if a military Delta Force is saying, Navy SEAL is saying, dude, this is what we signed up for. What do you think this life is? Is that kind of how you view it?

[Ray Lewis]

You can't. When somebody hits somebody in boxing and they knock them clean out, you can call that barbaric. Right? You can call that bad. You can't take out the. You. You can't take out the cross. You can't take out the jab. You can't take out the uppercut. Why? It's a part of the game. Hitting somebody is a part of the game, which is why you put on your helmet and you take both of your chin scraps. And they always tell you, make sure both of them are buckled up. Why? Because there are assassins and missiles out here. Right? I'm not. I want the game to be healthy, but we're not. Respectfully. We don't buckle up and say this and say to myself, I'm a hold back on him a little bit. What? Nah, bro. Yeah, it's.

[Interviewer]

It's. I see this clip, which I'm sure you've seen. Which one before? It's Ocho. Cinco is narrating. Rob, I don't know if you have this one as well. It's one of the funniest ones I've ever seen. First of all, he's hilarious. But, Rob, I just send it to you if you want to go to text. He's talking about that he tried to hit you and you didn't even see him and you dropped him and he's telling his coach. Here's narrating. Go ahead, Rob. It's been so long.

[Ray Lewis]

How have you been? Hello.

[Interviewer]

I'm doing well, Dave. Why are you talking that way? Please say one for a compliment or.

[Ray Lewis]

Two for a question.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, this is weird. I think I'm gonna go.

[Ray Lewis]

Talking with an automated phone tree can feel pretty ridiculous. That's when you call Pacific Source Health Plans.

[Interviewer]

You'll get a real person to answer all your important questions. Pacific Source Health Plans. This is a real person. How can I help you? Human service, not automated phone trees.

[Ray Lewis]

Find a plan@pacificsource members first.com. i hit Ray by accident. I thought I was gonna win because he didn't see me coming. I tried to hit Ray when he wasn't looking. Hey, I thought I got a good shot, but I failed. Something ain't right. When that play. When Rudy's coming. I tried to blindside Ray.

[Interviewer]

He ran me over in that moment. It's going that fast. Are you even feeling that? Like, when you saw this?

[Ray Lewis]

Absolutely not. You don't feel Chad. How you gonna feel, Chad? Me and him? You know what? You know what was. What was interesting about our relationship? So I played. We. When we decided to play them, right? And so he came to me one game and he says, would you pray for me? And I said, absolutely. Every game. I would send him Bible scriptures to read every Saturday night. Every Saturday night. And I had about 50, 60, 70 guys I used to do that to every day.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, he seems like he's a family guy. I know he's doing the stuff with Shannon, but he seems like he's both.

[Ray Lewis]

Of them crazy and lost their mind.

[Interviewer]

Both of them are crazy. Well, to me it sounds like Shannon is. Is been having fun for a long time, but he sounds like he settled down a little bit now. Look, I. I don't know that, you know. You know, he seems like he's got some stories.

[Ray Lewis]

A lot of. A lot of them.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

I'm gonna leave it at that.

[Interviewer]

So let's talk. Let's talk a couple of the things and then we'll wrap it up. Westmore, you said you're a fan of Westmoreland? Baltimore.

[Ray Lewis]

We grew up together. I met Wes. Jesus, what, 20, 26, 27.

[Interviewer]

So he's from here or you're saying.

[Ray Lewis]

You grew up in Maryland? I got the Baltimore at 19. I met Wes that same year.

[Interviewer]

What was he doing then?

[Ray Lewis]

Actually running around Baltimore coming to games. That's when we was like. I think one of the first pitches we had, like, with Johnny Unitis and the guys was on the field a few times, and then we kind of, you know, just always stayed in contact from that. From that standpoint. And then. Yeah. And so there you see a lot of pictures of me and him and sitting with each other and hanging out at the games. And so what was he doing then?

[Interviewer]

I mean, if you met him at 90, so you guys are a couple years apart. What. What was he doing? What job? Did he have politics or. Not yet.

[Ray Lewis]

Not yet.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Ray Lewis]

Now.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, Yeah, I think later on.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, I think. Yeah, definitely. Definitely came later on.

[Interviewer]

Got it. Yeah. And did you know right off the bat there was something special about this guy? Like, did you feel it? Does he.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah. His energy. His energy is incredible. His faith is even better. But who he is as a person, I adore him. Wes, he's just. He's one of those guys.

[Interviewer]

You. Politically, I think you. One time you and Jim Brown. Jim Brown went to the White House.

[Ray Lewis]

You were with Trump, got fried.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, you got. That's. Back then, when you would get fried. Today, you won't get fried. But back then, I mean, it was the first term I got.

[Ray Lewis]

We got fried for simply an accent. I wanted to ask him one question. This is when he was president, President elect at the time. And when I went up there, I said, papa, I'm following you, so whatever we gonna do, let's do it. And I said, he says, what was the first question you wanted to ask me? And I said, I want to ask a personal question. I'm going to get fried either way. So let me just get this out of the way. Is there a plan that you have in place to help black communities? You need to talk to my sister Amorosa, and then let's talk about that later. I ain't got an answer since. So. Yeah, he did a lot for the black. Yeah. That's why I wanted to know.

[Interviewer]

You may have made. You may have influenced us the question.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, I wanted to know.

[Interviewer]

Got it right.

[Ray Lewis]

He said. He asked me and Jim, he said, did any one of y' all vote for me? Absolutely not. He.

[Interviewer]

He asked you that?

[Ray Lewis]

Absolutely. Me and Jim said at the same time, absolutely not. No, but I. Because of what Jim started and me being mentored by Jim for about 15 plus years to see what he's done with America program. It's similar to my solar program. It's similar to everything that. Why I go in prisons, why I help all the communities the way I do, why I give back so much, why, why I have a new locker room. Right. That's, that's just, it's much bigger and more personal when it talks to like human development and mental health and all these different things that people are going through. And so when Jim introduced me to that side of life, like, everything changed for me, you know, because he, he started to understand, like I go in prisons and 50% of the prisoners hate me and 50% love me.

[Interviewer]

Why do they hate you? Why?

[Ray Lewis]

Because they, because 90% of them say, say things that it's everybody else fault where you are. Right. Like if somebody else, if somebody else had a similar situation, whatever. Yeah. It turns it in being whatever it is. But that's, that's life though.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ray Lewis]

Right. People like you, people hate you.

[Interviewer]

When you're at the house birthday party, your friends are there, you're up there, you're. You're praying. Right. You were, you were emotional, you were given an incredible powerful message. You're listening to you. And I think your prayer went viral, if I'm not mistaken. It was all over the place. I don't know where it's at, but it wouldn't be hard to find it. But you know, from talking to a lot of your friends, you know, that were there. That's, Is that the one? I think that's the one. Yeah. That's what you were wearing. You had that hat on. Yeah. Is that you?

[Ray Lewis]

Nice. Yeah, this is, that's Jimmy. That's Jimmy singing right now, though.

[Interviewer]

Right, right, right. But when you were up there, when you were up there and you were. You're doing what you're doing. Yeah, I went around and I probably spoke to 70 of your friends. Yeah, 60, 70. I spoke to Eddie, spoke to Marvin, spoke to a bunch of guys were there, spoke to. But mainly the pattern I saw, and maybe this is different. I, I got the feeling most of your friends were conservatives.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, yeah, I could say that. I would for sure, actually.

[Interviewer]

And the way you live your life, you, you, you, you don't like excuses, right. You, you just explained you joined the NFL, you're going to get hit, you're going to take that kid out. You chose to play this game. So it's not even like, hey, it's not fair, you know, you chose to. This is not this, this is not that. Straight up having that type of conversation of high standards. Right. On, on the. Would you say yourself you live more of a conservative life?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Faith, values, principles.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah. Of course, my mom's a pastor, and what she done for me, the direction that she gave me for her. For her to introduce me to God so young and for me to fall in love with God was. I wait on it every day. And I think. I think I just saw so much bad when I was younger that I said, I don't want to. I don't want to make my mother ever feel like that. And that still holds true to this day. That's why that. That's why at 25 years old, I stopped cursing, I stopped going to clubs. Never been to a strip club since. Don't. I've. Last time I had any type of taste of brown liquor, even when we was out. Give me a glass of wine. I'm good. But.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, you put that one thing in there.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Like, let me get a couple.

[Ray Lewis]

But. But I think it was. It was me p. Actually saying that I was gonna do something young, and nobody believed it. And so I said, I'm gonna continue to do it. And it became such a thing that you were so alienated because most kids started disrespecting their moms and their parents. And I'm like, I would never do that. I would never curse in front of my mom. I would never drink in front of my mom. Are you kidding me? No. And that thing is starting to pick up. And then me being a stutterer, I stuttered so bad. And then for me to travel the world now, I just got through speaking in, what, five, six countries? And I've always had that calmness inside of me. I've never. I used to have to be forced to fight. Like, if you wanted to fight me, you had, like, this dude would almost hit me in my jaw three times before I fight.

[Interviewer]

So you. You. You control your emotions.

[Ray Lewis]

Oh, man, I'm the greatest in it because. Because I. I will telling you, I witnessed something with my mom that I. I promised myself that I would never do anything to ever hurt her because of what she had already endured. To see my mom go through the stuff that she was going through, man, that's tough. And I'm like, I'm not adding more to that. So my motto, my lifestyle started at 10. Like, my lifestyle. Read my Bible, praying every day. 14, chasing sunsets, reciting our Father's Prayer. I'm 50 years old. Every day I see a sunset, I still recite our Father's Prayer. And that's when I had one pair of jeans, no shoes, Duct tape wrapped around my shoes. Same turf, Afro turfs that I Had to wear to school practice. And everybody knew it. You know, kids back in, they was harsh. Oh, you don't got no daddy. You broke. You wear the same clothes at school every day. Yes, I do. Then what? Then what? It still doesn't define who I am still to this day. That's why you would never see me with what I used to do when I was in my 20s and 22 years old.

[Interviewer]

Right. When you see, I'm a Middle Eastern myself. You know, family divorced, the whole 9, 1.8 GPA trajectory for me was nothing good.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

What saved me was military. When I went to the military in boot camp because I had one of the top three high scores for pt, I was able to go to camp with this man's house. And he ended up giving me his bible that his parents gifted him. December 24th of 1974, that I have till today. I'm like, don't give this to me. Trust me, I'm not worth you giving it to me. He said, son, I think you need this more than me. Great. I started praying three times a day from then till today. I watch my community. I watch. I'm Armenian, I'm Assyrian, from Iran. I watch the community. I watch what's going on. When you see community wise and you see single mothers, you see fatherless homes, you see the stats that comes up, where do you go to? Do you say, well, it's the government's fault. Do you say we should do something about it? Do you say it's systemic? How do you process that for somebody that seems like you're fairly reasonable?

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah, it's a lot of different verticals and values inside of all of them. Right. So when I got my doctorate just recently in humanitarian, it's what I've been studying the most, which is the dysfunction of communities. Like we're teaching, we're teaching everything about money, but we're not teaching history. Like we teach how to fight, we don't teach how to love, we don't. We stop parenting. So iPhones and iPads takes over. We have done everything the complete opposite of what does it mean to help an individual. We. There's. When you think about the structure of what we were not supposed to do, the reason why, when I was growing up, you was growing up, the reason why a man was not supposed to see a woman's nipple is because your brain can't process that at five years old. Now you tell a five year old, I can give you the same gadget with every bit of porn and every bit of nudity and every woman as a stripper and everybody. What the freak. No, it's broken. There's all of this fast technology and all of this cute stuff. You are killing our kids and you're destroying our communities. We don't. We don't even know what. We don't even know what human connection means anymore. Somebody lose somebody, Somebody get killed, somebody die, you send a text. My condolences. Great. I appreciate that. But I can't use it. Yeah, there's no more connects, right? A person who really cares, they gonna find you, they gonna call you. They gonna let you hear their voice, they gonna let you see them. Bro. I'm with you. That so? Man, it's like when you go through the phases of what has happened. Last year, from the age 22 to 55 years old, we have more men commit suicide than we had the last 100 years. Those are not just play play numbers. One out of 12 children have a suicide plan. One out of six carry it through. But 410 and the number now of them committing suicides, Our kids are the ages 10 to 24. That's the most alarming age because they're checking out. What so what. So what do you think is missing? You think something is wrong with the kids? Absolutely not. Is what we're feeding them, right? You got half of our country, 78% is obese in our country. And these. These brands that has this legendary following, feeds you garbage. But we wonder why so many cancers and so many diseases are just running through our country and we're okay with that. I want to know, truthfully. I want to know what a man is. I want to know what the purpose of a man is. I want to know when a man fall down, falls down, how does he get back up? Because my kids checking out because they don't have those answers. So I don't judge nobody. P. Whatever you go do, go do what you want to do. But I do take a hard stand and saying I won't be a part of it.

[Interviewer]

You think hip hop had a negative impact?

[Ray Lewis]

I think, I think. I think all phases of every time technology took off, we another wound, Another wound. Think about it. Think about where hip hop has went. Think about where television has went. Think about where video games has went. Everything shots to the brain, full clip. You're teaching them how to do it. What. So what do you think you're going to raise? What do you think you're going to create? It's war. It's all at war. And once again, the Leadership of that is where that should have been controlled. There's no way that a 7 year old should be playing Call of Duty. Are you kidding me? There's no way that our top people are rapping or saying the things they're saying. If they don't got grandmothers, as if they don't have grandfathers or children. The movies, everything. The most violent movies ever is probably the most popular ones. So we're desensitized. Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

I, I don't know what you're gonna do long term, Ray. I'm curious to see what you're going to be doing because I think I told you the other day, I said I don't know if you're starting a podcast, I don't know what you're doing. You got to do something more than what you're doing now because your method of delivering message is extremely important. I hope you pursue it. I hope you do something with somebody on a panel where you can voice your opinion on current events. I think a lot of times, at least we go back when he was a president elect. I think Steve Harvey also went up there. Well, maybe it was it in 20. I don't know when he went. But Harvey went there and visited as well. Yeah, when he went, he got, he got crucified too. But it was, there was a time you couldn't talk about this stuff. I think after Covid, now 25. I think everybody's free today to talk. I think there's. And what I mean, everybody today. Chris Pratt was a big time actor, is on Bill Maher talking about what's going on. You got a bunch of guys that are willing to use their platform to talk about it. I hope you do.

[Ray Lewis]

I'm doing it.

[Interviewer]

I hope you do.

[Ray Lewis]

I'm doing it.

[Interviewer]

I hope you do. And you do it regularly because you know you can have a very different kind of an impact. Like what you said earlier. Not just entertainment.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Way I'm talking actual true impact to kids.

[Ray Lewis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And I'd like to see a coach as well. For selfish reasons, man, I just want to see what your defense would look like if you went up there. I think the level of pride would be intense. But anyways, gang, if you're watching this, if you want to ask the man a question, he's on Manect. Ray, I can talk to you for hours, brother. This has been a blast as usual, my guy. One of these days, what we got to do next is do this cigar thing at the. And bring up the let's do it a bunch of guys are asking. We'll figure that part out as well here soon.

[Ray Lewis]

Do something. Let's do it.

[Interviewer]

Take care, everybody. Bye bye.

[Ray Lewis]

Bye, bye. What's going on, everyone? It's your man, Sugar Ray Lewis. Listen, I'm on my neck. I'm trying to connect. I don't care what it is. Let's say sports, let's say life, let's say leadership, let's say hope, faith, worry, fear, whatever it is. Let's chat. Let's do it. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon. It.