Twenty-four years ago, Shannon Sharpe gave an impassioned — and unexpected — defense of teammate Ray Lewis in advance of Super Bowl XXXV. More recently, Lewis gave and impassions — and unexpected — critique of Sharpe’s media career.
“I’m not surprised,” Lewis said on the PBD Podcast regarding Sharpe’s success as a podcaster. “I’m shocked at his content. . . . I kind of started to watch him and then we kind of went our own separate ways, because I’m like, ‘You’re gonna take that route? I can’t go that route. Never can go that route.’”
What is ‘that route’?
“That route is to become so worldly that you’ve become popular because you’re talking about ignorance,” Lewis said. “A lot of times a lot of these gossip conversations that they’re having and bringing up all this stuff, I’m not gonna do that to nobody. I’m not in the business for that. I’m in life to try to teach people what does it mean to be a better man or give back to the kingdom.
“And a lot of times, like, and a lot of guys get in trouble with these podcasts and things, man, because everybody wants the follower. Everybody wants to be popular, Everybody wants to make money. But that’s a tightrope into what you call influence and popularity. The devil has the ability to make you popular. God has the ability to give you influence that when people see you, they see an image of him.
“And that’s the thing for me that started to switch with not just Shannon, but just a couple of people. I’m like, ‘Wow, you will switch out like that? Really?’ And I would never, ever. Why? Because of the respect that I have for my mother, my daughters, my granddaughters, life, period.
“I think men, given these new platforms, we’ve overrode what the platform is actually for. The platform is supposed to help somebody find a new direction. We don’t help. Everybody’s just gets on. Like everybody’s talking now. Everybody got a podcast. Everybody is the new marriage coach. Everybody’s the new relationship coach. And ain’t nobody coaching themselves, because if you were coaching your yourself, when it says, ‘Power of life and death is found in the tongue,’ then go back and check out a couple of your episodes and ask yourself, ‘Do you give life, or do you give death? And that’s why me personally, yeah, I kind of do my own thing, Stay in my own lane.”
He exited that lane in a big way to share his views about his former teammate’s media career. It’ll be interesting to see if Sharpe, who has plenty to say about plenty of things, will have anything to say about what Lewis said.
The Ravens, like most properly functioning football teams do, didn’t wait to pay a draft pick who panned out. After three seasons, they knew that safety Kyle Hamilton had earned a second deal.
And they gave it to him.
Here are the full details of the contract, per a source with knowledge of the terms:
1. Signing bonus: $26.9 million, with $20 million paid within 10 days and $6.9 million paid by December 31, 2025.
2. 2025 base salary: $1.1 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 option bonus: $18.4 million, fully guaranteed..
4. 2026 base salary: $1.622 million, fully guaranteed.
5. 2027 base salary: $17 million, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in 2026.
6: 2028 base salary: $17 million, guaranteed for injury at signing and fully guaranteed in 2027.
7. 2029 90-man roster bonus: $1 million, due on the fifth day of the league year.
8. 2029 base salary: $17.9 million.
9. 2030 90-man roster bonus: $1 million, due on the fifth day of the league year.
10. 2030 base salary: $20 million.
The four-year deal has a new-money average of $25.1 million. Given the amounts he was due to make in 2025 and 2026, the contract has a value from signing of $20.32 million.
The contract pays $48 million fully guaranteed at signing, with rolling guarantees that lock in the third year by year two, and the fourth year by year three. It makes $82 million guaranteed, as a practical matter.
Lions safety Kerby Joseph had been the highest-paid safety. From a new-money standpoint, Hamilton pushed the bar $3.85 million higher.
Joseph will make $11.6 million this year; Hamilton will make $28 million. Over the next three seasons, Hamilton will out-earn Joseph by $23.4 million.
And it’s the biggest deal the Ravens have ever given to a non-quarterback.
Four weeks ago tomorrow, Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons asked to be traded. Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones shrugged it off as a negotiation tactic.
He’s reportedly not shrugging now.
ESPN reports that “several teams” have spoken to the Dallas Cowboys about a potential Parsons trade. And, for the first time, the Cowboys “appear willing to at least listen.”
Adam Schefter of ESPN.com adds that the Cowboys “would like to resolve the situation, one way or the other, in the coming days.”
If nothing else, trade talks coupled with, potentially, a new offer could bring the situation to a head. Maybe Parsons decides to take the best offer and stay. Or maybe he embraces a new team, even if it will be short handed in the near future, due to whatever they give up to get him.
Presumably, a Parsons trade package would include multiple first-round picks. And the new team would have to pay him upwards of $45 million per year in annual new money on an extension.
The Cowboys also could be inclined to ship Parsons, if anywhere, to an AFC team. The Packers have been linked to Parsons; the Cowboys should want to not have to compete with his team for playoff spots and/or seeding.
In the AFC, if teams like the Bills and Ravens are serious about catching the Chiefs, both should be burning up the phone lines to get a deal done. The Chargers and Broncos would also be intriguing destinations.
Or the Chiefs could get involved, if only to keep a rival from getting one of the best defensive players in the league.
Tyler Huntley is returning to the Ravens.
The quarterback visited the team on Wednesday and signed to the practice squad later Wednesday, the team announced. He replaces Devin Leary as the No. 3 quarterback behind Lamar Jackson and Cooper Rush.
The Browns released him earlier this week after he went 17-of-22 for 129 yards and a touchdown in the preseason.
He spent 2020-23 with the Ravens, earning Pro Bowl honors in 2022 as Jackson’s injury replacement. Huntley also rejoined the Ravens last season after being cut by the Browns but was signed off the Ravens’ practice squad by the Dolphins two weeks later and started five games for Miami.
Huntley has 2,786 passing yards with 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in his career.
The Ravens also signed OT Gerad Lichtenhan, DB Thomas Graham, OLB Malik Hamm, S Keondre Jackson, RB D’Ernest Johnson (vested veteran), WR Keith Kirkwood (vested veteran), ILB Chandler Martin, WR Anthony Miller (vested veteran), DT C.J. Okoye (international), TE Zaire Mitchell-Paden, G Jared Penning, CB Marquise Robinson, OLB Kaimon Rucker, C Nick Samac, FB Lucas Scott and DL Brent Urban to their practice squad.
The Ravens signed safety Kyle Hamilton to a four-year contract extension on Wednesday and the move came without much sign that an agreement was in the offing.
General Manager Eric DeCosta said in a press conference that he likes “to work kind of in the dark” when it comes to such negotiations, which extended to his comments about another possible extension. Quarterback Lamar Jackson’s current contract calls for him to have a cap hit of $74.5 million in 2026 and that’s led to the prospect of an extension coming up several times this offseason.
On Wednesday, DeCosta said that talks with Jackson are “ongoing” without offering any indication of how they are progressing.
“I appreciate the question, but it’s good to kind of keep these things with the players,” DeCosta said, via the team’s website. “That will continue to be the way we operate. I really wouldn’t want to get into any specifics with any of our players and their contract negotiations. I think that hurts the process.”
A Jackson deal would help the Ravens set their plans for addressing other players in the near future, but any updates on when it might happen will have to wait for DeCosta or Jackson to decide to share a bit more about where things stand.
