Ray Lewis Says the 'Tuck Rule' Is the Only Reason People Know of Tom Brady

UPDATE: Thursday, January 15.

Ray Lewis is backpedaling on his tuck ball comments.

A flurry of tweets were sent out from the former Ravens linebacker's Twitter account Thursday morning. Lewis says he wasn't trying to deride Tom Brady, but was merely expressing his frustration with the rule itself.

So Brady is actually good at football, and not just the byproduct of an experiment gone wrong in the NFL rules laboratory. Also, Lewis is really not over the tuck thing.

---End of Update---

If it weren’t for one controversial call made 13 years ago, the world would not know the name “Tom Brady.”

This is Ray Lewis’ honest opinion, as relayed from his actual mouth to a national audience of listeners tuning in to Stephen A. Smith’s Sirius XM radio show on Tuesday. 

CBS Boston’s Michael Hurley transcribed the breathless interview as best he could. The former Baltimore Ravens linebacker, never a dear fan of the New England Patriots, compared the controversial Dez Bryant non-catch from Sunday’s NFC divisional playoff game to Brady’s “tuck rule” moment from the 2001 season's AFC divisional game against the Oakland Raiders.

Here’s Lewis’ brushfire take, as heard by Hurley: 

"

Listen, not to go all totally out of conscious [I believe he meant ‘context’], but think about this Stephen A., honest to God. When we—the first time we created something a tuck rule, it’s the only reason we know—I’m just being honest!—the only reason we know who Tom Brady is, because of a tuck rule! There’s no such thing as a tuck rule! If the ball is in your hand, and I knock it out your hand, whether it’s going backwards, forwards, lateral, sideways, however it’s coming out, that’s a freaking fumble! But guess what we created? We created a freaking tuck rule!

 

"

Here's audio of the interview.

Indeed, Brady would not have been were it not for the tuck rule.

That moment made this man—spun him whole cloth into existence, manufactured his two MVP awards and spit forth another pair of Super Bowl rings for good measure.

Brady would not have 10 Pro Bowls under his belt without the tuck rule. He would be swapping out cold pies for warmer ones at a CiCi’s Pizza if not for that one time referees decided to rule a play an incompletion. At this point, he’s just hoping he has enough tuck rule in the tank to win his fourth Super Bowl.

Despite this ironclad logic, some people disagreed with Lewis' assessments.

Ray Lewis, everyone. There are hot takes, and there’s the straight Dylan fire only he can dispense.

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