BALTIMORE — In late December, Ray Lewis visited Ravens headquarters to film an “Inside the NFL” segment with Lamar Jackson for the Showtime show.
On Monday afternoon, the final product was posted on Twitter — eight days after the Ravens’ season-ending playoff loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
But while the timing doesn’t hold up, the interview between the two generations of Ravens stars does. Near the end of the video package, Lewis asked the rookie whether there’s “a ceiling for Lamar Jackson.”
“Ain’t no ceiling,” Jackson said. “I already said it when I got drafted: I wanted to bring a Super Bowl to Baltimore. So I’m going to try to bring as much as I can. … I want to bring the Super Bowl here. I want to be the (Tom) Brady (of Baltimore). I want to be the Brady. Bring multiple, if I could.
“Or you could be me,” Lewis deadpanned. “I brought multiple, too.”
Jackson has long admired the New England Patriots quarterback, saying at the NFL scouting combine his game was a mix between Brady and Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton’s. A month later, Brady called Jackson a “beast” in an Instagram comment.
In the “Inside the NFL” segment — the full episode aired Tuesday on Showtime — Jackson also explained to Lewis when he knew he was “the fastest kid on the block.”
“Probably when, like, I’m playing football with my older cousins,” he said. “I used to play with all the older guys. I never played with, really, my age group when I was younger. … There would be a new kid come on the block, and they’d be like, ‘Oh, this kid, he’s good,’ this and that. So I get jealous, because I’m like, ‘Man, I’m the best kid over here,’ so I’m going to outperform him.”
While Lewis reportedly called for Joe Flacco to replace Jackson at one point in the Ravens’ playoff loss, the Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker’s relationship with Jackson dates to before the season even started. In a Sports Illustrated round-table discussion with the four other quarterbacks taken in the first round of last year’s draft, Jackson said Lewis reminded him about the importance of accountability.
“He’s telling me it’s a business now,” Jackson said, according to Ravens Wire. “It’s not college, and you’re not just leading young guys — people your age — you’re leading people with families. People who have got to put food on the table for their families, provide for their families. Basically that’s it, yeah … just how to step up and be a man.”
