Ray Lewis

Ray Lewis was a Hall of Fame middle linebacker and emotional leader of the Baltimore Ravens, winning Super Bowl MVP honors and two championships.

Raymond Anthony Lewis Jr. was born on 15 May 1975 in Bartow, Florida, the oldest of five children, and took on significant family responsibility from a young age after his father, largely absent during his childhood, left the household. He starred at Kathleen High School before playing college football at Miami, earning All-America honours as a junior. The Baltimore Ravens selected Lewis in the first round, 26th overall, of the 1996 NFL Draft, and he developed into one of the most dominant middle linebackers in NFL history, leading the team in tackles as a rookie and in 13 of his 17 seasons. On 31 January 2000, hours after that year's Super Bowl in Atlanta, Lewis was present at an altercation outside a nightclub in which two men were fatally stabbed; he was initially charged with murder, but the charges were dropped after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour obstruction of justice charge and testified against his co-defendants, who were later acquitted at trial. Lewis was fined $250,000 by the NFL and later reached a private settlement with one victim's family. Lewis won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award twice and two Super Bowl championships, earning Super Bowl MVP in 2001, and retired in 2013 with an NFL-record 2,059 career combined tackles. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018, widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history, a legacy that remains permanently linked to the events of that 2000 case.

Aggressive, instinctive middle linebacker with exceptional speed, tackling ability, and defensive leadership

Considered one of the greatest linebackers and defensive players in NFL history, transformed the Ravens into a defensive powerhouse

• Pro Football Hall of Fame (2018)
• Super Bowl XXXV MVP
• 2x Super Bowl champion
• 13x Pro Bowl
• 7x First-team All-Pro