No member of the sports media knows more about Joe Flacco than Ray Lewis, who was teammates with the Baltimore Ravens quarterback for five seasons and won a Super Bowl with him. So when Lewis questions how much Flacco actually cares about football, it’s worth mentioning.
During an appearance on Fox Sports 1’s “Speak For Yourself” Thursday, Lewis was asked about the rough season Flacco is having. The retired linebacker pointed to Flacco’s lack of passion for the game.
"Gifted? Absolutely. Passionate about what he does? I've never seen that." —@RayLewis weighs in on Joe Flacco and why he's so inconsistent pic.twitter.com/d6K2J5yBdP
— Speak For Yourself (@SFY) November 17, 2016
“I’ll tell you what I do know. There’s something called talent, right? You see it a dime a dozen,” Lewis said, as transcribed by Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun. “And then there’s something called being passionate about what you do, about really what you do. And me being around it — gifted? Absolutely. Passionate about what he do? I’ve never seen that. I don’t know what that looks like.”
This is not the first time Lewis has questioned Flacco as a leader. After an embarrassing incident involving Ravens players on a party bus a few years ago, Lewis said the team lacked leadership, which was an obvious shot at Flacco.
On Thursday, Lewis was even more harsh. He added that Flacco tends to isolate himself on the bench and doesn’t like talking to his teammates.
“I don’t know how many times you will hear somebody just really go out on a limb to defend, ‘He’s the greatest teammate I’ve ever had.’ I don’t know how many times you’d hear that, right?” Lewis said. “Maybe it’s because his personality just isn’t that personality. He’s not a rah-rah guy. He won’t say much, but in the game of football, there has to be some burning fire behind you. There has to be something that’s bigger than [you].”
Flacco has never been one to let his emotions show, and Lewis was the total opposite as a player. If you want to know how much the two differ, recall what Flacco once said about Lewis’ fiery speeches.
Passionate or not, Baltimore is currently first in the AFC North despite Flacco’s 1:1 TD-to-interception ratio and lowly passer rating of 78.3. The Ravens know what they’re going to get from Flacco as a leader by now. He’s not going to change.
