Linebacker Ray Lewis spent his entire 17-year career playing for the Baltimore Ravens. During that time, he became the boogeyman in quarterbacks’ nightmares, as Lewis established himself as one of the hardest hitters in the NFL.
Lewis was a key contributor in helping the Ravens win the only two Super Bowls in team history. However, his decorated career was marred by controversy and accusations.
After the Super Bowl in 2000, Lewis and some friends went out partying in Atlanta. Two men were stabbed to death nearby, and Lewis and his friends were implicated in the murder. The charges against Lewis were dropped as he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor obstruction of justice charge and testified against the other defendants.
Ray Lewis Apparently Gives Questionable Advice
Former Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney recently shared a story about a time when the famous linebacker gave him some advice about a show he was trying to sell.
During an episode of the show, “Still Watching Netflix,” Mulaney recounted how he worked with Lewis and actor Paul Rudd on some ads for the EA Sports game “Madden Football.” Mulaney said he struggled to write an ad he liked because he felt so upset about NBC rejecting the pilot of a show he wrote.
“I’m standing there feeling really down, and suddenly Ray Lewis is right next to me,” Mulaney said. He proceeded to explain to Lewis how NBC rejected his pilot. “And Ray Lewis said, ‘You must win your crowd. When I went through what I went through, I learned I must win my crowd. Good-bye.’ Whoa, what did Ray Lewis go through?”
Mulaney had no clue who Lewis was and had never heard his story. He went to Lewis’s agent and asked him. The agent explained he’d been wrongfully accused and fined $250,000.
He said he walked up to Lewis and asked if he could tell him more about “winning his crowd.” Lewis explained that he saw the movie Gladiator when he was going through that difficult time. Mulaney joked that Lewis explained the entire three-hour movie in great detail.
When he got to the end, he said Maximus knew he couldn’t defeat the emperor, but he could become more powerful than him by winning the crowd. Lewis said he took that attitude back to the Ravens, and they won another Super Bowl.
Mulaney said Lewis got him all fired up, “I call my agent and go, ‘I must win my crowd!’ I give him no context. We’re not done with the show, we will fight, let’s keep trying to sell that show. That Sunday night I get a call from my agent, we kept fighting, we sold the pilot somewhere else. It’s gonna be on Fox. And it was on Fox, and it was a total f***ing unmitigated disaster. So if you ever meet Ray Lewis, don’t listen to him.”
Lewis may not give great advice, but he was a beast on the field. He was selected for 13 Pro Bowls and was a First-Team All-Pro seven times. He was the NFL’s solo-tackle leader on three occasions and the combined-tackles leader another three times. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.