Ray Lewis is a Football Hall of Famer and has served as a TV analyst as well. You’d think he wouldn’t have missed a second of the Super Bowl, but by Lewis’ own admission, he shut the game off before halftime.
Lewis said he turned the game off late in the first half after two key pass interference calls combined to give the Buccaneers 42 yards through the air, setting them up for a pivotal touchdown just before halftime. Lewis said it was indicative of how defenses are treated in the modern game, and bemoaned the loss of physical football.
“It’s hard. It’s hard to watch the game,” Lewis told ESPN First Take on Thursday, via Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star. “I’m going to give you a few names and you tell me why you guys remember them. When you think about Jack Lambert, when you think about Dick Butkus, when you think about Mike Singletary, when you think about Ronnie Lott, when you think about those type of players, what do you think about?
“You think about physical football. You think about defenders having the offensive coordinator fear you, because on the other side you could deliver that hit. But now, Stephen, Max, I turned the TV off in the Super Bowl once they made those few calls against Kansas City, because you can’t call those types of calls, but that’s the way the game has gone.”
Lewis wasn’t the only one put off by the penalties, which were controversial to say the least. The Chiefs actually set a record with their penalty tally in the first half, and some of them looked iffy.
In the end, the Chiefs couldn’t do anything against the Tampa Bay defense, which Lewis noted. The penalties helped set the tone, though.
