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Ray Lewis apologizes for calling out Joe Flacco: 'You'll never hear it again'

Published Dec. 9, 2016 1:03 p.m. ET

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Cameron DaSilva

Ray Lewis made headlines last week when he called out Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, his former teammate. On FS1’s “Speak For Yourself,” Lewis said Flacco is absolutely gifted, but has “never seen” him show enough passion about what he does.

Flacco obviously caught wind of Lewis’ comments and responded as you’d expect him to. The quarterback called it “a little surprising coming from Ray” and has dealt with this sort of criticism dating back to high school. Flacco said it’s just part of his personality, and it’s true: He’s not a rah-rah guy who will fire up a team the way Drew Brees does, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

On Monday, Lewis went on Twitter and apologized to Flacco with a lengthy video. Here’s what he had to say.

“I’m a Raven for life, but Joe Flacco, what I was talking about, my brother, it wasn’t even about you,” Lewis said. “It wasn’t even personal. It was just me being frustrated of watching something that I had control over for so many years, which was men and inspiring them to go on and do things. And guess what? Like everybody else, I lashed out at the quarterback, because quote, unquote, that’s the person who is supposed to carry us or do whatever. Brother, your personality is what it is. You’re a man, and you put your pants on one leg at a time just like everybody else. Listen, from a man, you’ll never hear it again. Sorry for ever even calling out your name or putting your name in the context of making you try to be anything that I am or anything that you’re not.”

Lewis continued by saying his mistake was “speaking out of turn about a man” who is going out there and doing whatever he has to do to help his team. While Lewis was probably wrong for calling out Flacco, he was right to put this to rest with an apology.

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