Ray Lewis Calls Out Former Teammate Joe Flacco for Not Being Passionate Enough

Ray Lewis says he "doesn't know" what a passionate Joe Flacco "looks like."

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

During a Thursday appearance on FS1, Ray Lewis called out the passion of Joe Flacco after being asked why the Baltimore quarterback has been so inconsistent this season. "Gifted? Absolutely. Passionate about what he do? I've never seen that," Lewis told Jason Whitlock on Speak For Yourself. "I don't know what that looks like."

Lewis went on to say that Flacco is "[a]lways isolating himself," after a big play or a bad play, and that he considers Flacco a "teammate" not a "friend." When Whitlock compared Flacco to Jay Cutler, a comparison few—​if any—quarterbacks would want, Lewis responded by saying, "I don't know how many times you'll 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'll hear that. 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."

Flacco and Lewis were teammates in Baltimore for five years (from 2008 to 2012) and won a Super Bowl in their final season together. After that win, Flacco came out and praised Lewis's passion, though he also admitted that he frequently had no idea what the hell Lewis was ever talking about during his pregame speeches. "His speeches come from the heart, but there's definitely times where I'm sitting there kind of chuckling to myself. It's all good. There's nobody that's morepassionate about what he does than that guy," Flacco said back in 2013. "So you just sit back and take it all in, but there's times where he says some stuff and you're like, 'Man I don't know what that meant, but I like how he said it.'"

This, of course, checks out for anyone who's ever heard any of Lewis's rallying cries. As for Flacco, he's currently 29th in the NFL in passer rating, and will lead the 5-4 Ravens on the field against the Cowboys this Sunday.

Latest in Sports