‘When he retired, it was one of the greater days of my life’ – Peyton Manning was thrilled to see a ‘mean’ Hall of Famer retire
Tennessee Volunteers legend Peyton Manning was more than happy to see one NFL Hall of Fame linebacker retire.
Peyton Manning faced plenty of delite defenders during his NFL career.
There was one defender, though, that stood above the rest.
Manning appeared at Fanatics Fest this week and he said that Baltimore Ravens legend Ray Lewis was the best defensive player he ever played against.
“He was the best defensive player I ever played against,” said Manning of Lewis. “… It’s interesting because the TV copies (of games) now, you can hear all of the things being said out there. I think Ray was the first guy who was really studying the TV copies of the game and picking up on your verbiage and terminology and which audibles were going.
“I always thought he knew a lot of our plays. I always thought he knew when we were going to snap the ball. So whenever he would blitz, he would time it up, and he’d have this running start toward me. And it’s like every time he would hit me, he’d kind of drive me into the ground. And he’d use me to help him get back up. He’d whisper in my ear, ‘I’ll be back here in a couple of minutes, punk.’ A very friendly guy. When he retired, it was one of the greater days of my life.”
I’m sure there are plenty of quarterbacks who felt the same way about Lewis, who finished his career with over 2,000 tackles and 41.5 sacks.
Lewis retired after the 2012 season, which means Peyton got to spend the final three seasons of his career without worrying about whether or not the Hall of Fame linebacker was going to annihilate him.