Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis sat at his locker inside M&T Bank Stadium after Sunday?s game and kept rubbing his back. He was clearly in pain as, ever so slowly, he pulled himself up by the locker?s clothing rod.
He gingerly walked off to the showers and emerged a few minutes later. He dressed himself, put on his best smile and told the media about the bizarre confluence of events that led to his injury in the Ravens? 26-20 win over the Bengals.
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The Ravens thought they had come up with a fumble recovery, one that would eventually be reversed, on the play. Safety Ed Reed and Lewis collided. Reed?s leg was bruised, as was Lewis? spine.
“Friendly fire,” Lewis said of his third-quarter injury. “And you know, it?s just like a freaky incident. You know I?m trying to set up a block and that?s something we do in practice all the time. And you know, he cut the wrong way, and [Dawan] Landry kind of got involved. I turned back to him and the ball of his knee caught me in my spine.”
Lewis and Reed both remained on the ground for several minutes, sending a hush over the largest crowd in Baltimore professional football history.
“Oh yeah, man, any time you get hit in your back, that?s the first thing I had to grab,” Lewis said. “I?m like, ?Wow.? You lose all feeling for a minute.”
Improbably, both men returned to action on the next play because of a failed challenge charged to the Ravens. Lewis said he had no choice in returning to the game. The crowd roared as he ran toward the huddle.
“You know, if I slowed down, it would have just locked up,” Lewis said.
On Monday, head coach Brian Billick said Lewis and Reed were doing “good.”
“Ray?s [being] the tougher of the two,” Billick said. “[He] took a pretty good shot to the back, and it?s a matter of the back spasms up on you a little bit and it takes a little while for that muscle to calm down. [They were] scary moments to see those two on the turf the way they were, but it was great to see them come back in.”
On his first play back, Lewis was tested by Bengals running back Rudi Johnson, who ran right through the middle, cracking into Lewis.
“And then I went back in there and I hit Rudi,” Lewis said. “First, I was like … ?it?s not ready.? ”
It was an odd moment for fans. Lewis, elevated to Superman-like status over the years, was a bruised and battered man, out-muscled by a runaway running back.
There have been occasional moments like that this season for the 11-year veteran, who leads the Ravens with 65 tackles. Even with the injury, he led the team with eight tackles Sunday.
The win was the big thing, he said, for the 6-2 AFC North leaders.
“Right now, we?re in control of our division,” he said. “We?re in control of our destiny right now, and all we have to do is keep doing this.”
