Ray Lewis is Angry at Joe Flacco
This story was supposed to be in the Week 11 roundup, but I broke it out considering this was the biggest (and only) story.
Joe Flacco is an average quarterback, capable of great, and imperfect play. Is it fair to criticize his performance? Absolutely, just look at his Passer Rating of 78.3, which places him in the bottom five of the league. But is it fair to criticize his attitude? Well...
Retired Ravens' legend Ray Lewis appeared on FS1's "Speak For Yourself" yesterday to share his thoughts on the upcoming Ravens-Cowboys matchup, and while there, he voiced his opinion that he has "never seen" Joe Flacco passionate during a 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
It's one thing to knock a player for underperformance when you use numbers to support your case, but when you turn to intangibles like "passion," it's always a sticky situation. Having played in the league for 17 years does give him the rare privilege of being able to say something like this and not have it immediately dismissed out of hand. However, that does not mean he's automatically right. As I'm sure Lewis is aware of given how long he spent playing, not everyone celebrates, gets angry, or processes things the same ways. So the way he expresses passion may not be the same way, Joe Flacco does. Flacco said as much today when asked about Lewis' comments, and in the background of the video, you can hear his current teammates, who would be most aware of any dispassion, yelling, "We got your back, Joe!"
In times like these, it's important to remember the old saying, "Never meet your heroes or watch them if they decide to go on FS1."
