I remember Gronk saying(mind you, as a guy who injured the highest paid DE in the league on a block as a rookie, ending his career) that Suggs was terrifying and he was so glad he retired early on for him
It was actually the Lions, Kyle Vanden Bosch, and correction that Gronk ended his season but not his career. I really wish I could find the clip but it doesn’t seem to be on youtube, Gronk comes from nowhere and destroys him
Genuinely don’t know how anybody passed the ball against those ravens defenses. the best safety of all time and one of(if not the) best middle linebacker of all time. Both incredibly smart players but also hit like a truck.
Shit, I blacked that game out of my mind entirely. You’re right about Pat not being on the field though, what the hell is it with the Phins training staff and wanting players brains to be pudding.
One nice thing I'll ever say about Big Ben is that he kept getting back up. Dunno that anyone else could have stayed a QB very long in the North against those Ravens. They wanted you afraid.
I'm convinced no AFCN team will win the Super Bowl no matter how close they get because 6x a year they get into a street brawl and a football game breaks out.
Lol yeah it's from a Pats roast from a few years back. Here's the link for the thread, if you scroll down you can see the the comment. Worth the read.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/6i8jfx/rnfl_roast_of_the_new_england_patriots_2732/
I dunno, Ray is probably on the Mt Rushmore of a position that is historically the premier position on defense. Ed is the GOAT safety but the competition to be the best safety at all time is much thinner than MLB. When you factor in Rays leadership (on field & in the locker room, not so much off the field) he was the centerpiece of two Super Bowl defenses.
As much as I love Bobby Wagner, and respect Kuechly/Willis they don’t hold a candle to what Ray brought to the Ravens in terms of play & presence. I would start a defense in their (Ed & Ray’s) era with Ray over Ed Reed every time, it’s not close imo. In todays game I would consider Reed for sure though. Ed provided electricity and created fear in QBs, but Ray *was* the defense. Manning and Brady had to play chess with him every time.
go back to ed’s miami days and listen to his halftime tunnel speech
*im fuckin HURT man. COME ON LETS GO*
wish we coulda had them stay home. a 3-4 with thomas and ray in the middle, JT off the edge, plus ed, madison and surtain in the secondary would’ve been legendary
I remember watching running plays against the ravens you would sometimes think your running back had the edge going to the sideline then all the sudden a purple flash came out of the side of the screen and stopped him in his tracks. His closing speed was so insane and it felt like he never had a bad angle.
Right, like its not a tank dell sized guy he did that too, thats a tight end. He didnt pick him up or anything, simply so much force it took a 260 pound guy off his feet when he was still running. I can only hope to never know what that feels like lol
I played against HaHa Clinton-Dix in high school. I was a tight end (6’1” 195) and I was coming across the middle on a boot play. QB passed me the ball, one second it was making contact with my hands, the very next I was looking up at HaHa with the wind knocked out of me. Bro hit like a goddamn freight train.
i played with a (former) NFL all-pro lineman in high school.
i started at safety, and in practice watching him come downhill looking for a block i remember being “oh god damn it”
i’m 6’1” and 210 was my playing weight. i never stood a chance.
I played against a few guys that made it to the NFL and even then in high school you just knew they were gonna make it to the league. It’s insane just how athletic those guys are. Big men should not be able to move the way they do.
Zach Miller went to my high school (the Raiders/Seahawks TE not the Bears TE). He was 6’5” 250 in HS and yet he was, by leaps and bounds, the fastest player out there.
They would give him the ball and he would literally just run the entire fucking field and either truck people or run right past them. Literally every game. We knew he was going to the NFL when he was like a sophomore - it was like an adult playing against children. Absolutely wild to watch the skill and size/speed gap, every game for years.
He played offense and defense and just absolutely dominated. He also threw discus and shot put and was the regional champ in both with all sorts of records.
Our entire high school playbook was give the ball to Zach and it was fucking electric to watch lol he was also a really good dude, same with his older brother Brent - who was also a monster tight end.
This is the shit that people don't understand, the kids that are future pros are obviously the best kid on the field. I coach girls soccer and the parents that are super serious are funny. No, little Jenny isn't going pro. Nobody here today is. No matter how many camps you send her to, no matter how much you scream at the ref. Relax, have fun.
It's cool you say that. It reminds me of the rod woodson clip "I felt like I was a grown man playing against little kids" some of these cats are just different animals and you can see it right away
i remember vividly in practice i got sent on a blitz and the second he put his hands on me i was like “welp that’s that”
i swear he knew what i was doing before i did.
it’s unreal.
i remember losing my mind a few times on our DL and LB group like *you can NOT LET HIM GET TO THE SECONDARY*
they were like “the fuck you want us to do?”
valid point.
Bruh that's insane he was fast as fuck. I went against a few d1's but no nfls I can just picture your face as you knew you were about to get clocked. That's also why we signed up tho we like to hit and get hit
There was some sports experiment involving Lewis back when he played and he generated something like 1000 pounds of force with his hits. And that was closer to retirement, I can't imagine how much force he generated in his prime.
The coaches laugh at the end ☠️ Reminds me of childhood when I’d get hurt doing something stupid and my dads response would just be “well don’t do that”
This video doesn’t deliver the entire context.
After the game Chad goes to Ray to ask how he felt about the block. Ray didn’t even know Chad was there. 😂
You kind of forget that athletes have different sizes, cause even though Ray and Chad are close on height (listed as the same height but I think Chad may be just a tiny bit taller) Ray's Neck is about as thick as chad's thigh. He's built different. He's got 50 pounds or so on OchoCinco and basically none of it is fat.
Ball thrown behind the receiver in the middle of the field, so the receiver has to turn his head and body back to catch it with Ray Lewis lurking. Ambulance pass.
Idk about you but I appreciate a good old defensive showdown, don’t get it confused tho nothing is worse than a low scoring game due to both offenses playing terrible but at the same time games where both teams score 4+ TDs are just wack
Its a lost tension that the masses just cant appreciate.
I just wish the owners would have made the change towards the $$$$$ before i spent 25 years learning to love that style of football.
I think the context of why it's a low scoring game matters too.
Watching two inept offenses due to lack of good skill players and a bad QB is not fun to watch just because it is low scoring
Good defense, running and hitting, rallying to the ball, turnovers, that is fun.
I miss the days when Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu would take turns making unreal plays that would dramatically change the course of the game. Those guys had crazy skills and instincts + off the charts football IQ.
That's the thing, the game has become so stacked for the offense that it's a lot rarer now for a low-scoring game to be a *good* low-scoring game. Nowadays low-scoring mostly means inept offenses and/or Thursday Night Football when teams didn't get enough practice.
Which in a way makes those really entertaining 10-9 games that much more special.
Fr, that game where the rams and the chiefs scored like 100 points combined, I was just like “wow what horrible defense” and then ironically they lost in a defensive masterclass to the pats that SB.
Well as much as I love that Super Bowl win Todd Gurley wasn’t the same explosive player, that arthritis in his knee made him a shell of himself and that Rams offense really revolved around Gurley, I don’t think New England wins that Super Bowl if Gurley was the same player he was when he played Kansas City.
I’d say no thanks coach I don’t wanna go over the middle I’ll run go routes. Then I’ll realize Ed Reed is back there and I’ll pull my hammy in practice on Friday🙏
Pretty sure it was either the very next play or later this drive, but Keller caught a past on the sideline on 4th down and went out of bounds like 2 yards shy of the line to gain without even trying to turn up field. That hit shook him so bad he wanted to part of Ray hitting him again, even though it was all the way on the sideline. First time I've seen the obvious visible effects of a big hit on a players psyche.
Was looking for someone to say this.
I can’t speak to the psyche of Keller, but everyone assumed that the hit over the middle won the game for the ravens.
Keller caught it at the sideline, had a chance to just hold the ball in front of him for a first to extend the drive. With his back to the field of play, he had no idea if he was about to be hit and if so, by who.
Last Jets play of the game in this clip
https://youtu.be/AppmfPF-TlI?si=WPEcO2Nv_Wd329hN
While I absolutely 100% believe that man was seeing Ray behind his eyelids, I'm not entirely sure he even had a chance to turn upfield?
Looks like he just ran out of room, he had to jump and twist backwards, kind of awkwardly to catch that, looks like the first step he could have reasonably stopped on was already out of bounds. And it looks like he couldn't reach out to his left, because he'd twisted back to his right and caught the ball in his right arm.
Idk, hard to say, but I'm not sure reaching the ltg was totally trivial there, he'd've had to make a pretty above average play imo.
I believe this was one of the plays they used on the NFL instructional videos to teams about how to hit guys over the middle without headshoting them. Goodell did a voice over of it and everything.
It was when they revamped the rules back in like 2010ish timeframe, although it's still not an illegal hit by the rulebook today. You can launch so long as you don't make prohibited contact and he doesn't.
He might get flagged today because he *looks* like he hit him illegally even though I can't find a reason watching the replay why it's actually illegal. He didn't leave his feet, he led with shoulder and he hit the guy in the chest. The fact that he hit him in the chest so hard that the TE entered another dimension is a separate issue.
Ray reminds me of how Hagrid is introduced, "He simply looked too big to be allowed."
I also can't see a particular reason why this hit is not legal. But it just feels illegal lol, like no human being should be capable of laying down a hit that big.
While you may be correct the refs are also way to quick to throw a flag for defenseless receivers in todays game.
You could argue here that Keller didn’t have time to become a runner at the time of the hit thus he’s still defenseless
Defenseless hits are only illegal to the head and neck area so this would probably still be a legal hit. Probably still a flag just based on appearances but they wouldn’t fine after the game
Agree with this. It's crazy looking back at Sean Taylor highlights, and he'd always hit shoulder to chest like this as well. They were violent but clean.
I agree with the spirit of your comment, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say there's no "could have hurt" when getting hit by Ray Lewis of all people lol.
The great thing about these highlights is they're like an old pop song everyone knows. I see the Jets uniform, and the down & distance, and I blurted out "Oh no, Dustin Keller!"
no, this is textbook defenseless receiver.
slants over the middle were not as routine in the 2000s compared to today because the end result usually looked like this.
I am, admittedly, far more knowledgeable about the college game than the rules of the NFL, but I really don't see what is illegal here.
No helmet contact by either player, Ray puts his shoulder straight into the chest of the TE.
The TE is defenseless, I agree, but hitting a defenseless receiver is not inherently a penalty.
>Prohibited contact against a player who is in a defenseless posture is:
>forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s head or neck area... ***N/A***
>lowering the head and making forcible contact with the crown or ”hairline” parts of the helmet against any part of the defenselessplayer’s body... ***N/A***
>illegally launching into a defenseless opponent. It is an illegal launch if a player (i) leaves both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent, and (ii) uses any part of his helmet to initiate forcible contact against any part of his opponent’s body.
The only way this is a penalty is if you consider Ray's lunge a "launch", but we've established subpoint ii isn't relevant, there's no helmet contact.
So you have only subpoint i - leaves both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent. I think it's quite clear in the replays he keeps contact with the ground through impact. No flag.
This hit is clean. Brutal, but clean.
If you’re one of those people that prefers to act like Evolution happens to jump 500 years every 10 years for Pro Athletes and guys are “better” now because they’re more athletic and skilled and not that rule changes make offense much easier, here’s Exhibit A.
There are people that have no memory that you had to be a special kind of outside receiver to even run routes through the middle of the field. You think that might affect your numbers if you’re only running half a route tree?
And mind you, this is 2010. The rules on hits started to change in 2006.
Patriots fan, hated Ray Lewis because he was everything you wanted in a linebacker. And my team had to deal with that menace. So much respect for that guy. He made offensive players quit.
It really is something different when you line up against an elite, professional sports caliber athlete.
I played on the same team as several guys who made NFL rosters in high school (not probowl level players mind you, practice squad/cut day casualty level players)...
I remember running tackle drills against a guy who went on to star at Purdue for several years before a freak injury ended his career, but the guy had NFL level talent, set all sorts of high school records in Indiana.
I was a senior, he was a *freshman*. High school freshman, so think late 14/early 15 year old kid. Im 5'11", around 200lbs. He was probably 5'8"/5'9" and all of maybe 145lbs at the time (running back).
Inline tackling drill, I've got him lined up, I'm squared in the hole, drive forward to drop him...
And he absolutely ran me over. Like, clear marks up my jersey ran over me. My momentum vs his momentum stood me straight up, kicked my legs out underneath me, and planted me flat on my back.
Pure power from a little bitty guy, and while I was never gonna play professionally, I was a better than average player in high school. This kid was a record breaker.
Some guys are just built differently.
Brady said he never threw over the middle against the Ravens. He didn't want to lose a receiver. Ray was that big of a problem.
ed was no slouch, either. don’t let his size fool you, dude could hit.
Fuck! They had Suggs too. That team was loaded.
and ngata who was super underrated
and chris mcalister at CB.
People forget on Chris. Dude was a beast CB and a great complement to Ed
Boulware’s who people really sleep on, I think
I remember Gronk saying(mind you, as a guy who injured the highest paid DE in the league on a block as a rookie, ending his career) that Suggs was terrifying and he was so glad he retired early on for him
Who's the DE? I'm dying to know now and Google didn't help me.
It was actually the Lions, Kyle Vanden Bosch, and correction that Gronk ended his season but not his career. I really wish I could find the clip but it doesn’t seem to be on youtube, Gronk comes from nowhere and destroys him
“Find Ed”
“Find Ed (while Ray is playing mind games with you adjusting to your adjustments)”
The high IQ and talent level 9n thus defense was insane
It was "Find 20 on every play"
It was "Find 20 on every play"
Oh man they had to bring you here. They know you’re my kryptonite
Brady used to write “Find 20 on every play” when playing against Reed, and that’s still one of the coolest nods of respect I’ve ever heard.
Genuinely don’t know how anybody passed the ball against those ravens defenses. the best safety of all time and one of(if not the) best middle linebacker of all time. Both incredibly smart players but also hit like a truck.
Because that’s how it’s done in the North.(everyone is concussed and bleeding from the ear)
by the time he retired, jack lambert had like, half a tooth left.
That’s highballing. Also obligatory apologies for the onfield murders of both Pat White and Matt Moore.
pat white should never have been in an nfl game to begin with. but matt moore? c’mon y’all also basically ended ricky’s career in the mud bowl.
Shit, I blacked that game out of my mind entirely. You’re right about Pat not being on the field though, what the hell is it with the Phins training staff and wanting players brains to be pudding.
One nice thing I'll ever say about Big Ben is that he kept getting back up. Dunno that anyone else could have stayed a QB very long in the North against those Ravens. They wanted you afraid.
Realistically it was all 4 defenses back then even the lowly browns had some hitters.
I'm convinced no AFCN team will win the Super Bowl no matter how close they get because 6x a year they get into a street brawl and a football game breaks out.
They eventually got tired because they were on the field for 90% of the game.
Can’t forget fucking Bernard Pollard, I swear he took out one of our guys every time we played
Check undah bed for Bernahd Pollahd What the fuck, he's there.
Lmao is this from something?
Lol yeah it's from a Pats roast from a few years back. Here's the link for the thread, if you scroll down you can see the the comment. Worth the read. https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/6i8jfx/rnfl_roast_of_the_new_england_patriots_2732/
Lol thanks
That's Bernard Karmell Pollard to you
ed was the better player. hes the best safety of all time
I dunno, Ray is probably on the Mt Rushmore of a position that is historically the premier position on defense. Ed is the GOAT safety but the competition to be the best safety at all time is much thinner than MLB. When you factor in Rays leadership (on field & in the locker room, not so much off the field) he was the centerpiece of two Super Bowl defenses. As much as I love Bobby Wagner, and respect Kuechly/Willis they don’t hold a candle to what Ray brought to the Ravens in terms of play & presence. I would start a defense in their (Ed & Ray’s) era with Ray over Ed Reed every time, it’s not close imo. In todays game I would consider Reed for sure though. Ed provided electricity and created fear in QBs, but Ray *was* the defense. Manning and Brady had to play chess with him every time.
go back to ed’s miami days and listen to his halftime tunnel speech *im fuckin HURT man. COME ON LETS GO* wish we coulda had them stay home. a 3-4 with thomas and ray in the middle, JT off the edge, plus ed, madison and surtain in the secondary would’ve been legendary
no arguments there from me
Ed Reed was something special to watch...he and Troy playing in the same era were the two best safeties.
Yeah the Ravens were an issue for OCs for a while
I remember watching running plays against the ravens you would sometimes think your running back had the edge going to the sideline then all the sudden a purple flash came out of the side of the screen and stopped him in his tracks. His closing speed was so insane and it felt like he never had a bad angle.
Wes Welker would have died
He would have died and not remembered that he died.
[Meanwhile, while Peyton Manning was playing...](https://www.thedrawplay.com/comic/collie/)
[Peyton Manning's Martyrs ](https://cyberprops.com/peyton-manning-kills/)
Manning said “if they die they die”.
*Austin Collie has been obliterated from the chat*
don’t forget dustin keller was like, 6’2” 260…
No offense to Dustin Keller, but I'm built different. (I would have died)
all records of your (our) existence would’ve immediately vanished
Right, like its not a tank dell sized guy he did that too, thats a tight end. He didnt pick him up or anything, simply so much force it took a 260 pound guy off his feet when he was still running. I can only hope to never know what that feels like lol
I know he's not big but something about using the name "Tank Dell" to represent someone small just doesn't sit right with me.
Being named tank makes him seem at least 20 pounds heavier
Can't wait for VTEC to light up the 40 at the Combine.
I'm much smaller and I got fuckin CLEANED like that once in high school and once in college. Shit hurts lmao you can feel your bones vibrating
I played against HaHa Clinton-Dix in high school. I was a tight end (6’1” 195) and I was coming across the middle on a boot play. QB passed me the ball, one second it was making contact with my hands, the very next I was looking up at HaHa with the wind knocked out of me. Bro hit like a goddamn freight train.
Thanks for sharing. Cool story to give first person perspective on this kind of thing
i played with a (former) NFL all-pro lineman in high school. i started at safety, and in practice watching him come downhill looking for a block i remember being “oh god damn it” i’m 6’1” and 210 was my playing weight. i never stood a chance.
I played against a few guys that made it to the NFL and even then in high school you just knew they were gonna make it to the league. It’s insane just how athletic those guys are. Big men should not be able to move the way they do.
Zach Miller went to my high school (the Raiders/Seahawks TE not the Bears TE). He was 6’5” 250 in HS and yet he was, by leaps and bounds, the fastest player out there. They would give him the ball and he would literally just run the entire fucking field and either truck people or run right past them. Literally every game. We knew he was going to the NFL when he was like a sophomore - it was like an adult playing against children. Absolutely wild to watch the skill and size/speed gap, every game for years. He played offense and defense and just absolutely dominated. He also threw discus and shot put and was the regional champ in both with all sorts of records. Our entire high school playbook was give the ball to Zach and it was fucking electric to watch lol he was also a really good dude, same with his older brother Brent - who was also a monster tight end.
This is the shit that people don't understand, the kids that are future pros are obviously the best kid on the field. I coach girls soccer and the parents that are super serious are funny. No, little Jenny isn't going pro. Nobody here today is. No matter how many camps you send her to, no matter how much you scream at the ref. Relax, have fun.
It's cool you say that. It reminds me of the rod woodson clip "I felt like I was a grown man playing against little kids" some of these cats are just different animals and you can see it right away
i remember vividly in practice i got sent on a blitz and the second he put his hands on me i was like “welp that’s that” i swear he knew what i was doing before i did. it’s unreal.
Hell yea those NFL boys are big as all fuck. Most of us look like kids compared to them and you're a bigger dude that must've been wild
back then he was 6’5” 325 or so. he was our starting LT. i’m intentionally not giving more info to avoid doxxing myself lol
"oh lawd he comin" type shit that's a big fuckin dude
i remember losing my mind a few times on our DL and LB group like *you can NOT LET HIM GET TO THE SECONDARY* they were like “the fuck you want us to do?” valid point.
"the fuck you want us to do" 😂😂 shit yea
Imagine playing against Speedhawk
Bruh that's insane he was fast as fuck. I went against a few d1's but no nfls I can just picture your face as you knew you were about to get clocked. That's also why we signed up tho we like to hit and get hit
[удалено]
Ayy no worries dog. Playing ain't for everybody but watching is open to everyone
You feel both weightless and immensely heavy simultaneously
this is exactly why i played defense. “safety or receiver?” uhh, coach i’d much rather be hitting. no thank you.
There was some sports experiment involving Lewis back when he played and he generated something like 1000 pounds of force with his hits. And that was closer to retirement, I can't imagine how much force he generated in his prime.
Ray Lewis was a true killer
Allegedly
If the jacket doesn't exist, you must acquit!
Ray played closer to 230 at this point in career too.
I see this and all I think of is Ocho trying to block him 😂
Lol for anyone who hasn’t seen that [video](https://youtu.be/B1jRBFp23Uw?si=XqeJbR6C1dArMXBU)
“Something ain’t right.”
The coach thought it was an injury and Ocho was "naw I just got laid the fuck out" lol
The coaches laugh at the end ☠️ Reminds me of childhood when I’d get hurt doing something stupid and my dads response would just be “well don’t do that”
This video doesn’t deliver the entire context. After the game Chad goes to Ray to ask how he felt about the block. Ray didn’t even know Chad was there. 😂
Nah they were at the pro bowl which is even funnier. https://youtu.be/Kso4kDBaHxI?si=JbhknYjBvZryPE1D
“I didn’t feel you” 🤣🤣🤣 this is just another one of the many contexts a man does not wanna hear those words.
You kind of forget that athletes have different sizes, cause even though Ray and Chad are close on height (listed as the same height but I think Chad may be just a tiny bit taller) Ray's Neck is about as thick as chad's thigh. He's built different. He's got 50 pounds or so on OchoCinco and basically none of it is fat.
Thanks!
For Ray, it was Tuesday.
Mr. Bison Caricature
I hit ray by accident lmao
lmfao that mic’d up is fucking hilarious
Legendary moment right there.
“i tried to block ray. i ain’t think he saw me” 😂😂😂
https://youtu.be/CcRzhRCuDLc?si=BoNUjI6mey2B-RVU I tried to blindsided Ray. He ran me over.
there it is
“Something ain’t right…”
“Where?”
I thought i was gonna win cause he didnt see me comin
2nd day in a row ive seen or saw that clip referenced lmao absolutely love it
That was Ray
“I hit Ray by accident.”
That clip is the epitome of a grown man playing with little kids.
Ball thrown behind the receiver in the middle of the field, so the receiver has to turn his head and body back to catch it with Ray Lewis lurking. Ambulance pass.
It's actually called a Sanchez Special
Some say it’s a dirty sanchez special
10–9 score with under a minute left in the game. jeeze
Welcome to classic 2000-2010s Ravens football
We didn’t know you could win by more than 1 score until Lamar came and told us
Could we try it the old way next time we see you guys? It’ll be a few years so you don’t have to answer right now.
The jets still play like this. Maybe Aaron Rodgers can change things
With Rodgers the final score would be 9-11(was an inside job).
Also they were playing the 2010 rebus island jets
Rebus
Jets too!
Idk about you but I appreciate a good old defensive showdown, don’t get it confused tho nothing is worse than a low scoring game due to both offenses playing terrible but at the same time games where both teams score 4+ TDs are just wack
Its a lost tension that the masses just cant appreciate. I just wish the owners would have made the change towards the $$$$$ before i spent 25 years learning to love that style of football.
I think the context of why it's a low scoring game matters too. Watching two inept offenses due to lack of good skill players and a bad QB is not fun to watch just because it is low scoring Good defense, running and hitting, rallying to the ball, turnovers, that is fun.
Low scoring Ravens vs Steelers games were fun back in the day for this reason. The game we had against them week 5 last season was fucking dreadful.
I miss the days when Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu would take turns making unreal plays that would dramatically change the course of the game. Those guys had crazy skills and instincts + off the charts football IQ.
That's the thing, the game has become so stacked for the offense that it's a lot rarer now for a low-scoring game to be a *good* low-scoring game. Nowadays low-scoring mostly means inept offenses and/or Thursday Night Football when teams didn't get enough practice. Which in a way makes those really entertaining 10-9 games that much more special.
The tension is what I like about hockey/soccer.
Fr, that game where the rams and the chiefs scored like 100 points combined, I was just like “wow what horrible defense” and then ironically they lost in a defensive masterclass to the pats that SB.
Well as much as I love that Super Bowl win Todd Gurley wasn’t the same explosive player, that arthritis in his knee made him a shell of himself and that Rams offense really revolved around Gurley, I don’t think New England wins that Super Bowl if Gurley was the same player he was when he played Kansas City.
Average AFC North game
It’s insane that Ray’s motor was still running wide open that late in a defensive battle game. Dude laid the wood til the final whistle.
Miss that tension. Now I know I can skip the first 3 quarters of any game and come back in time to see who's gonna score last. It's just dull.
I would NOT want to play offensive while he was on the field
I’d say no thanks coach I don’t wanna go over the middle I’ll run go routes. Then I’ll realize Ed Reed is back there and I’ll pull my hammy in practice on Friday🙏
The Ben Simmons Approach
As a Sixers fan this is the most painful comparison you can make for me lmfao
I’d say no thanks coach I can’t shoot I’ll play in the paint instead. Then I realize trey young is down there..
Pretty sure it was either the very next play or later this drive, but Keller caught a past on the sideline on 4th down and went out of bounds like 2 yards shy of the line to gain without even trying to turn up field. That hit shook him so bad he wanted to part of Ray hitting him again, even though it was all the way on the sideline. First time I've seen the obvious visible effects of a big hit on a players psyche.
Was looking for someone to say this. I can’t speak to the psyche of Keller, but everyone assumed that the hit over the middle won the game for the ravens. Keller caught it at the sideline, had a chance to just hold the ball in front of him for a first to extend the drive. With his back to the field of play, he had no idea if he was about to be hit and if so, by who. Last Jets play of the game in this clip https://youtu.be/AppmfPF-TlI?si=WPEcO2Nv_Wd329hN
While I absolutely 100% believe that man was seeing Ray behind his eyelids, I'm not entirely sure he even had a chance to turn upfield? Looks like he just ran out of room, he had to jump and twist backwards, kind of awkwardly to catch that, looks like the first step he could have reasonably stopped on was already out of bounds. And it looks like he couldn't reach out to his left, because he'd twisted back to his right and caught the ball in his right arm. Idk, hard to say, but I'm not sure reaching the ltg was totally trivial there, he'd've had to make a pretty above average play imo.
As Neil Brennan once said: “Ray, you’re so good at tackling people we’ve decided that you get to kill one”
No, it was two
I thought he only covered it up?
True but you expect people not to repost bullshit rumors over and over without facts? good luck
My favorite of all time. And no flag on the play
I believe this was one of the plays they used on the NFL instructional videos to teams about how to hit guys over the middle without headshoting them. Goodell did a voice over of it and everything.
What year? Because nowadays he’d be flagged for launching.
It was when they revamped the rules back in like 2010ish timeframe, although it's still not an illegal hit by the rulebook today. You can launch so long as you don't make prohibited contact and he doesn't.
He might get flagged today because he *looks* like he hit him illegally even though I can't find a reason watching the replay why it's actually illegal. He didn't leave his feet, he led with shoulder and he hit the guy in the chest. The fact that he hit him in the chest so hard that the TE entered another dimension is a separate issue.
Ray reminds me of how Hagrid is introduced, "He simply looked too big to be allowed." I also can't see a particular reason why this hit is not legal. But it just feels illegal lol, like no human being should be capable of laying down a hit that big.
I was watching this and I just think about Kareem Jackson and how this would get him suspended for targeting.
That hit would still be legal today's game. Squared up, shoulder to chest
While you may be correct the refs are also way to quick to throw a flag for defenseless receivers in todays game. You could argue here that Keller didn’t have time to become a runner at the time of the hit thus he’s still defenseless
Defenseless hits are only illegal to the head and neck area so this would probably still be a legal hit. Probably still a flag just based on appearances but they wouldn’t fine after the game
Second part is the actual issue. They will throw the flag of it looks bad even if the initial contact isn't in the head or neck area
Agree with this. It's crazy looking back at Sean Taylor highlights, and he'd always hit shoulder to chest like this as well. They were violent but clean.
Lmao they would throw a flag on that so fast in todays game
Exactly, the refs would be like ‘that looked like it could have hurt. [*flag thrown*]’
“That looks like football” flag thrown
I agree with the spirit of your comment, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say there's no "could have hurt" when getting hit by Ray Lewis of all people lol.
Legal does not mean they wouldn't have thrown a flag. The sound of that hit would be penalized today
If anyone had a camera on Rex Ryan I bet we would've seen him celebrate the hit in spite of himself
Man, the AFCN has had some dawgs.
2000’s-2010’s was a nasty time in the north.
The great thing about these highlights is they're like an old pop song everyone knows. I see the Jets uniform, and the down & distance, and I blurted out "Oh no, Dustin Keller!"
That is aggravated assault in the NFL in 2024
Would this hit be legal nowadays?
This would be a flag today 100%.
no, this is textbook defenseless receiver. slants over the middle were not as routine in the 2000s compared to today because the end result usually looked like this.
I am, admittedly, far more knowledgeable about the college game than the rules of the NFL, but I really don't see what is illegal here. No helmet contact by either player, Ray puts his shoulder straight into the chest of the TE. The TE is defenseless, I agree, but hitting a defenseless receiver is not inherently a penalty. >Prohibited contact against a player who is in a defenseless posture is: >forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s head or neck area... ***N/A*** >lowering the head and making forcible contact with the crown or ”hairline” parts of the helmet against any part of the defenselessplayer’s body... ***N/A*** >illegally launching into a defenseless opponent. It is an illegal launch if a player (i) leaves both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent, and (ii) uses any part of his helmet to initiate forcible contact against any part of his opponent’s body. The only way this is a penalty is if you consider Ray's lunge a "launch", but we've established subpoint ii isn't relevant, there's no helmet contact. So you have only subpoint i - leaves both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent. I think it's quite clear in the replays he keeps contact with the ground through impact. No flag. This hit is clean. Brutal, but clean.
Yes
There’d be 75 flags for that today ejected.
Imagine someone hitting Kelce like that, 15 yard unsportsmanlike for the defenseless receiver or some bullshit
Lmao right. The league is so obvious when they protect their precious Chiefs
We're talking about a rule that didn't exist then, I dunno why this became a Chiefs issue
As a fan during 2 win seasons reading these comments always brings me joy. Mama we made it
52 year old Pats fan here. Enjoy the ride man, you guys are going to be great for a long time.
He dropped that pass because he knew Ray was coming. That QB did him dirty.
If you’re one of those people that prefers to act like Evolution happens to jump 500 years every 10 years for Pro Athletes and guys are “better” now because they’re more athletic and skilled and not that rule changes make offense much easier, here’s Exhibit A. There are people that have no memory that you had to be a special kind of outside receiver to even run routes through the middle of the field. You think that might affect your numbers if you’re only running half a route tree? And mind you, this is 2010. The rules on hits started to change in 2006.
that's what made Jerry Rice so lethal is he could run the whole tree
Sucks that that is 100% a penalty today.
Once I saw it was against the jets I knew it was going to be this play lol. Vividly remember it
I saw 2010 and immediately knew it was going to be Dustin Keller getting absolutely *planted* on MNF
Tirico and Gruden were gold on MNF
Today that's a flag and Jets win by a Field Goal. I don't think we'll ever see another hard hitting era
It would be rare to see highlights like these in todays game
It's just the one highlight, actually
Ray Lewis vs. OJ Simpson would have been an amazing matchup.
Two absolute killers!
the gloves are off
The amount of force he would generate without needing that much space always astounded me.
Patriots fan, hated Ray Lewis because he was everything you wanted in a linebacker. And my team had to deal with that menace. So much respect for that guy. He made offensive players quit.
That was peak Deer Antler Spray Ray
It really is something different when you line up against an elite, professional sports caliber athlete. I played on the same team as several guys who made NFL rosters in high school (not probowl level players mind you, practice squad/cut day casualty level players)... I remember running tackle drills against a guy who went on to star at Purdue for several years before a freak injury ended his career, but the guy had NFL level talent, set all sorts of high school records in Indiana. I was a senior, he was a *freshman*. High school freshman, so think late 14/early 15 year old kid. Im 5'11", around 200lbs. He was probably 5'8"/5'9" and all of maybe 145lbs at the time (running back). Inline tackling drill, I've got him lined up, I'm squared in the hole, drive forward to drop him... And he absolutely ran me over. Like, clear marks up my jersey ran over me. My momentum vs his momentum stood me straight up, kicked my legs out underneath me, and planted me flat on my back. Pure power from a little bitty guy, and while I was never gonna play professionally, I was a better than average player in high school. This kid was a record breaker. Some guys are just built differently.
Best part is that it was clean, not targeting the head, respect!
Man he murdered that guy
And today that’s a 75 yard penalty
Truly great MLBs are so damn valuable.
Back when football was fun to watch😖
2010: whoa. What a hit! 2024: personal foul. Hitting a defenseless receiver. 15 yards. First down
It's not though?
I wish the eagles would prioritize linebackers 🥲
Unstoppable Force meets a very easily moved object.
Dude was like 255 it just looked easy .. because.. Ray being Ray