Ray Lewis

Pardon my hiatus from the blogging world these past few days.  I caught a horrible case of food poisoning and I'll save the graphic details for imagination, but let's just say it wasn't pretty.  I am still on empty energy-wise, but the stomach is feeling a lot better and finally got a good night's sleep last night.  With that said, I stumbled upon this video via someone's Facebook yesterday, and I can't get enough of it.  I've always had a ton of respect for Ray Lewis the player and leader, but this elevated him to new heights in my mind.  He first sticks up for his kicker Billy Cundiff and defends him.  He had the right to be extremely ticked off as his career is winding down and they missed a golden opportunity to make it to his second Super Bowl, but he always seems to take the high route and do what is right but doing so in a manner that is full of passion and authenticity.  He then goes on to talk about how hard the team worked and fought this year.  He knows the loss is hard, but he knows everyone gave it their all and there can only be one Super Bowl winner.  The most striking bit of it for me was how he talks to and about Joe Flacco.  The passion in his voice when he tells Flacco he played his a** off and to never drop his head after a loss gave me the chills.  He then related this to the outside world by saying there are bigger problems in the world and they should also make an effort to make somebody smile.  What I love about this is just how unscripted it is.  Lewis just has a way of doing this and if I were in the NFL, I'd absolutely love to be his teammate and play alongside a guy like this. I was reading a comment from someone that said "Patrick Willis-take note" and I think this is especially true.  Willis is a great player and has a similar team to that of Lewis, and if he embraces leadership like Ray Lewis does, he will be remembered as a great one as well.  I know Lewis is at the tail end of his career, but I can't wait to see him finish out these years with that same passion.