Watch Ray Lewis tell wild story of how he ended up at Miami over Florida State
By John Buhler
Ray Lewis tells the epic tale of how he ended up with the Miami football program instead of playing for the rival Florida State football team.
On his 46th birthday, let’s take a look back at the time Miami football legend Ray Lewis explained how he ended up at Coral Gables instead of playing for the rival Florida State football program.
Lewis recalled being in the office with FSU defensive coordinator Chuck Amato and him saying that if he was able to put on weight, he could be like Derrick Brooks by the time his junior year rolled around. Taken aback by the comment, Lewis said, “How do you know I’m not better than Derrick Brooks right now?” Lewis shook Amato’s hand and walked out without a scholarship.
Four days before national signing day and Lewis did not have a scholarship anywhere. Fate would have it Miami head coach Dennis Erickson would call him up and offer him the final scholarship Miami had available in that cycle. This scholarship only became available because a prospective recruit had messed up his knee in an ATV accident. As the old adage goes, the rest is history.
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Miami football legend Ray Lewis remembers picking Hurricanes over Seminoles
In three years with Miami, Lewis was a two-time all-American at linebacker. He forwent his senior season at Coral Gables to enter the 1996 NFL Draft. Lewis was the second Pro Football Hall of Famer taken by the recently rebranded Baltimore Ravens after UCLA standout offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden. He won two Super Bowls during his illustrious NFL career spent with the Ravens.
Today, Lewis is widely seen as the greatest player in Ravens franchise history, a franchise that employed Ogden, as well as another Pro Football Hall of Famer and Miami football legend Ed Reed. All these years later, it is still hard to imagine that Lewis almost did not have a football scholarship. For an undersized and underrecruited middle linebacker, he turned out just fine.
Florida State fans have to be kicking themselves at being this close to signing Lewis in 1993.
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