Ravens lose Ray Lewis for the season
On the long list of ways football players can injure themselves, tearing the triceps muscle sounds pretty awful. That’s exactly what happened to legendary linebacker Ray Lewis Sunday in the Baltimore Ravens’ win over the Dallas Cowboys.
With a torn right triceps, Lewis will be out for the rest of the NFL season, awful news for a defense already struggling. But Lewis will be missed on he sidelines and in the huddle, too, where his experience lends him to be the voice of reason, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Ray in the locker room afterward, we didn’t know (the extent of the injury) but he was worried about it. He said some things about his faith. He said some things that I’ll never forget,” Ravens coach Jim Harbaugh said.
In his 17-year career, he has been invited to 13 Pro Bowls, was named Super Bowl MVP, and is a two-time NFL defensive player of the year. It’s quite the list of accomplishments, but Lewis wasn’t done with the game. However, he’ll be turning 38 in May, so there is the question of whether Sunday’s game could have been his last.
Adding to the hit, Baltimore also lost cornerback Lardarius Webb for the season to a torn ligament in his left knee. For Webb, this feeling brings no surprise. He missed the latter part of his rookie season in the NFL in 2009 with a torn right ACL, and he’s looking at a similar situation now, facing surgery again.
“Lardarius was distraught. I could see it when I walked onto the field, on his face,” Harbaugh said. “He kind of knew because he’s been through it before. I just felt like he knew. He was just beside himself.”
The loss of both Lewis and Webb takes some of the joy out of the Ravens’ 31-29 victory over Dallas, which was their third straight win.
“I’m disappointed for those guys,” Harbaugh said. “It doesn’t matter how I or someone else feels about it. It’s their thing. These are guys that put so much effort, heart and soul into what they do.”
