10-Time Pro Bowler Ray Lewis Swallows Pride, Returns to Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens have just put the finishing touches on an absolute whirlwind of a week in NFL free agency, by agreeing to terms with All Pro Linebacker Ray Lewis on a new three-year contract that will enable Lewis to finish his career where it all started in 1996. 

What seemed like a high stakes game of poker between the club and Lewis over the past week turned out to be nothing more than a simple game of war, with the Ravens holding all the cards in the end.

General manager Ozzie Newsome's motto is “right player, right price” and he proved once again that his gauging of the market was flawless by getting his man...at his price.

It all started early Friday morning when reports surfaced that Lewis told people close to him that his career in Baltimore was over, and that he was finished in the city that bleeds purple.

Ravens fans were outraged that Lewis would just dismiss the team and fans who stuck with him through thick and thin over the years, instead looking to cash in with any team willing to meet his contract demands.

The people who surround Lewis nor Ray himself will never be mistaken for public relation geniuses, as shown in the past with comments to the media over the years in Baltimore.

This past week was no different. Instead of coming out in the first days of free agency and saying all the right things, it seemed like he was doing just the opposite much to the dismay of the Charm City faithful.

As the first day of free agency labored on, it was clear that team Lewis had overplayed their hand in a big way as the suitors for a once great, but now 33 year old aging veteran were pretty much nonexistent.

By later that evening the word coming from the Lewis camp had changed dramatically, and reports were he was open to coming back to Baltimore after all.

Lewis must have been in shock to see all of the usual suspects he was linked to in the weeks leading up to free agency, quite frankly were just not interested. The Jets signed former teammate Bart Scott to fill their inside linebacker hole, and the Cowboys politely said “no thanks” and signed veteran Keith Brooking instead.

By late Friday night Lewis said that he was going to think about the Ravens contract offer over the weekend, and decide on his future early the next week.

In reality, the only thing Lewis had to think about was how he was going to get back in the good graces of the Ravens fans who saw their leader as man who really didn't care about them anymore, and in their eyes was more worried about going to the highest bidder.

The legendary middle linebacker was in damage control mode, as the phone he waited by remained silent over the weekend in a scenario that Lewis never thought was possible just 24 hours earlier.

Fast forward to Wednesday, and it had been eerily quiet on the Ray Lewis front and most insiders were reporting that it was not a matter of if Lewis signed, but when. Sure enough, at 4:42 PM EST it was announced that the 10 time Pro Bowler agreed to a a new three-year contract with Baltimore.

Ravens fans all over breathed a collective,yet indifferent sigh of relief. While once seen as a player who could do no wrong in a city that adored him for the past 13 years, ”Sugar Ray” as his teammates call him is going to have to do some fence mending with people of Baltimore who feel their hero threw away 13 years of goodwill in the matter of a week.

In the end Lewis is back where he belongs,in the city that despite all that has taken place over the past few weeks will still scream in a frenzy when he comes running out of the stadium tunnel the first week of the NFL season.

But while they will surely forgive Lewis, the fans will never forgot how their once infallible leader took them for granted and lost his way for a moment in an otherwise illustrious career as a Baltimore Raven.