Ray Lewis mentors third-year player Ray Rice

By Joe Platania
CSNbaltimore.com/PressBoxOnline.com

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For years, linebacker Ray Lewis has hosted players at his home to watch game tape and sample his mother’s outstanding cooking. But there’s another reason he does it, as running back Ray Rice found out.

“It was basically just a conversation about life,” Rice said after such a meeting earlier this week. “There is so much more about the game and life that you learn from these situations. A lot of the situations you can take from the game and apply it to life.”

For years, Lewis has been a mentor of sorts to players around the league who have been caught in either bad off-field situations or in the maelstrom of negative publicity. Ten years after his double-murder trial, Lewis has been through enough of the fire to counsel those on how not to get burned.

“When [Rice] and I left [the practice facility] yesterday, he stayed at my house for almost five or six hours, just talking,” Lewis said Thursday. “Me just telling him, ‘Sometimes, man, don’t stress. Just keep pushing. It’s a journey.’ And if you understand it’s a journey, at the end of the day, you’re going to figure out where you’re at.”

Rice has become a fan and team favorite for his laidback attitude and omnipresent smile. He certainly hasn’t seemed jaded by the constant attention, not to mention temptations, a Baltimore-based football player can run into.

Many other younger players have benefited from Lewis’ wisdom, and even in his third year, Rice is thankful for the opportunity to stay grounded.

“It was a good time,” Rice said. “I definitely appreciated the time.”