NFL legend Ray Lewis talks new memoir, troubled past
Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis is considered one of the most feared defenders of his generation. The two-time Super Bowl champ is the only NFL player with at least 40 career sacks and more than 30 interceptions.
Lewis spent 17 seasons anchoring a Ravens defense often considered among the best in the league. Fans and teammates admired his intensity, speed and leadership ability, reports "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose.
Lewis first gained national attention as a linebacker for the University of Miami and entered the 1996 NFL draft after his junior year. The Ravens drafted him in the first round before the brand new franchise had an official logo or uniform design.
It's a story he chronicles in his new memoir, "I Feel Like Going On: Life, Game, and Glory," published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, a division of CBS. In the book, he also addresses his troubled childhood and his arrest in 2000, where Lewis was charged in the stabbing deaths of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub.
"Like I said from the beginning, when this first started, I was innocent, and I'm saying it now, that I'm innocent," Lewis said during a June 2000 press conference.
He spent 15 days in jail before pleading guilty to obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to a year probation and received a $250,000 fine from the NFL.
"If I had to do it over, I would do everything differently," Lewis said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning." "But it's kind of what's going on today, right? Back then, if social media existed back then, wow - how I could have used social media back then for camera phones to catch these incidents and things that's going on. My story would be totally different."
Lewis recounted some the details of the 2000 incident.
"So when [the cop] approached me, you have to understand I had a 6-month-old child in my arm, and I had a 2-year-old son holding onto my leg," Lewis said.
If you've never been in a situation like that, Lewis said, you don't know how to react.
"When he approached me -- the thing I will tell any person that ever was in that situation, 'Keep your mouth closed. Don't say nothin'," Lewis said.
After the controversy, Lewis remained focused on football and won his first Super Bowl ring the following season.
In January 2013, the all-time franchise leader in tackles and fumble recoveries announced his retirement, saying, "Today I told my team that this will be my last ride."
That ride ended a month later when Lewis brought the Vince Lombardi trophy back to Baltimore.