Gold Jacket Spotlight: Ray Lewis, his coaches shared mutually beneficial relationships

Five developing future NFL head coaches mentored Pro Football Hall of Famer RAY LEWIS throughout his 17 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. The teaching process between coach and player was a two-way conversation in each of those experiences, resulting in shared career advancement.

An examination of the coaches’ impact on Ray and his influence on each of them is the focus of this week’s Gold Jacket Spotlight.

Marvin Lewis served as defensive coordinator for Baltimore (1996-2001) prior to his appointment as Cincinnati Bengals head coach for 16 years. He recognized that although Ray possessed special talent, there would not be any extra privileges afforded the linebacker who earned his first AP Defensive Player of the Year award in 2000 under the coordinator’s watch.

“You put pressure on Ray. Ray could take it,” Lewis told NFL Films. “You coached Ray harder than anybody else because people look to him for that.”

Ray earned recognition as Defensive Player of the Year again in 2003.

Three of the five aspiring head coaches — Mike Smith (Falcons), Jack Del Rio (Jaguars and Raiders) and Pro Football Hall of Famer MIKE SINGLETARY (49ers) — served as Ravens linebackers coach, with Ray teaching them as well as the position coaches instructing Ray.

“In 1985, I was 10 years old, and that was my first year of playing football,” Ray shared with NFL Films while discussing his elevated level of anticipation upon learning Singletary would be his position coach. “I would run home to make sure I did not miss a Chicago Bears game. All I remember was Mike Singletary.”

Singletary’s concern regarding accepting the position centered on his preconceived thoughts about coaching a player who already had received Player of the Year honors.

“It’s the reason I didn’t want to got to Baltimore,” Singletary once shared. “Best defensive player of the game. I’m thinking, ‘Let me go somewhere else where there’s some rookies or something.’”

Ray eliminated Singletary’s concerns, eagerly awaiting his new coach’s arrival and saying when he met: “Coach, I can’t wait. I want it all.”

Singletary’s response, “Let’s get to work.”

“He raised the level of play around him. He also raises the level of coaching,” Singletary professed during “NFL Presents.”

Smith and Del Rio each identified and valued Ray’s football acumen, leadership and input.

“The thing about Ray was the way he interacted with you. I would look forward to Thursdays … because Ray would go home on Wednesday and watch tape,” Smith told NFL Films. “He would come in and have some little nugget that he would share with me. It opened my eyes that you have to interact with these guys. They can help you as much as you can help them.”

Del Rio, who played linebacker in the NFL for 11 seasons before entering the coaching ranks, observed, “He’s a coach enabler in a positive way. He enables you to reach the group. If you give Ray something, he embraces it, and he charges so hard with it that the group gets inspired by it.”

Prior to becoming head coach of the New York Jets and later the Buffalo Bills, Rex Ryan served a variety of roles on the Ravens’ staff for 10 of Ray’s 17 seasons.

“He is the Baltimore Ravens.” Ryan said of Ray. “We were all a part of it, but he is the Baltimore Ravens, and I think there are very few players that have that kind of impact on an organization.”

“Every one of those guys always critiqued me with little, little stuff,” Ray responded while listening to the shared experiences of those coaches during the NFL Films production. “I grabbed something from them and hold on to it to this day.”