Ray Lewis
American football player (born 1975)
Raymond Anthony Lewis Jr. (born May 15, 1975) is an American former professional football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes, earning All-America honors. He is considered one of the greatest linebackers of all time.
Lewis was selected by the Ravens in the first round of the 1996 NFL draft, and upon his retirement following the 2012 season, was the last remaining active player from the team's inaugural season. Lewis immediately became a leader on defense and led the team in tackles as a rookie, the first of 14 times he led the Ravens in tackles.
In 2000, Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the stabbing deaths of two men; he testified as a key witness at the trial, and a jury determined the killings were acts of self-defense. The following season, he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year and led the Ravens' record-setting defense, which established a 16-game single-season record for the fewest points allowed (165) and the fewest rushing yards allowed (970), to victory in Super Bowl XXXV. Lewis also became the second linebacker to win the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award, and the first to win the award on the winning Super Bowl team. Lewis won his second Defensive Player of the Year award in 2003, becoming the sixth player to win the award multiple times. After a triceps tear that sidelined him for most of the 2012 regular season, Lewis returned for the Ravens' playoff run and earned his second Super Bowl victory in his final NFL game.
“Ray Lewis” enters the record as american football player (born 1975). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lewis, American and football can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q44428. VIAF identifies the subject as 234149366601085602800. The Library of Congress control number is n2008037425. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 1996, 2012 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ray Lewis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.