Ray Lewis was Super Bowl XXXV
By MIKE ULMER -- Toronto Sun
TAMPA -- They had these bars that separated Ray Lewis from his interrogators last night at the Super Bowl.
They were in a barricade, spaced about four inches apart, and they stood between the media and the podium that held the Super Bowl's most valuable player.
Has there ever been a story like Ray Lewis?
A year ago, the bars that men peered through to get a look at Lewis were the doors of a cage.
He was charged with murder in the horrifying killing of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub after Super Bowl XXXIV. Lewis pleaded down to obstructing justice and two of his friends were acquitted in a badly mismanaged trial.
Last night, the bars were trim on a throne.
"Do you feel vindicated, Ray?"
"Do you have words for Disney, Ray, after they said they didn't want you saying, "I'm going to Disney World?"
"Is this the best defence ever, Ray?"
"The man upstairs doesn't put you through trials without bringing you to a triumph," said Lewis, who obviously had rehearsed the line. He was that sure.
They booed when Lewis was introduced last among the Baltimore Ravens at Raymond James Stadium before Super Bowl XXXV.
He shucked left, he shucked right. He picked up a couple of pieces of grass and brought them in front of his face.
"I was saying, this is my turf," Lewis said.
And it was. Every inch.
Lewis' first half wasn't just the key element of a well-earned 34-7 win over the New York Giants. He was the difference.
One minute, Lewis was batting a pass into the arms of teammate Jamie Sharper for a pivotal interception. Then he was knifing through a maelstrom to knock down Tiki Barber on what should have been a 10-yard gain.
"They took away everything," Barber said with a shrug.
The half ended 10-0 Ravens and when Lewis and Shannon Sharpe came out of the locker room, the linebacker turned to his best friend on the team.
"Shannon, we just needed 10 points. This game is over."
And it was.
"I told you all week, they had never seen a defence like ours," Lewis said. "We're like a buzzsaw that comes at you from different directions."
Pity Kerry Collins, the recovering alcoholic who salvaged his life and career in New York. If there was a counterpoint to Lewis' week-long not-mea culpa it was Collins' exemplary behaviour.
Lewis compared himself to Jesus Christ, Collins to a struggling child.
But last night, the meek did not inherit the earth, let alone field position. Collins completed eight of 21 passes for 74 puny yards and four interceptions.
He wasn't the only good man beaten badly. Giants cornerback Jason Sehorn, he of The Tonight Show proposal, avid faith and faultless complexion, routinely was bested during the first half.
The game-opening touchdown went over Sehorn's head, into the arms of Brandon Stokley. Sehorn was beaten for another sure touchdown but Ravens quarterback Trent Dilfer missed a wide-open Patrick Johnson in the second quarter.
The Ravens offence made just three third-down conversions in 16 tries. Dilfer was up and down all night. None of it mattered. Only a kickoff return by the Giants' Ron Dixon denied the Ravens a shutout.
And in the end, it came back to Lewis. Everything did.
"Ray Lewis wasn't just the most valuable player," Ravens defensive tackle Tony Siragusa said. "He has been the most valuable player since the first day. He has been through a lot of hardship. Ray Lewis is a class act."
Let those be the defining words of Super Bowl XXXV. As in war, the winners write the history.
Back at the barricades, the vindication poured through the bars at Lewis.
"Ray, what do you have to say to the people who wanted to see you stumble?"
He smiled from the right side of the bars.
"If they want to see me stumble," Lewis said, "they'll also have to see the ring on my finger."
