Former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis weighed in on current Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco this week and shared his opinion that Flacco is lacking passion for the game.
Lewis, who was part of a Super Bowl winner with Flacco, suggested that it may just be Flacco’s personality to be more reserved than Lewis was during his playing days, but said “there has to be some burning fire behind you” that he obviously didn’t pick up from Flacco when they were both in Baltimore.
Flacco was asked about the comments during an appearance with Adam Schein on Sirius XM Mad Dog Sports Radio and said he thought he always had a good relationship with Lewis without feeling much of a need to pick apart what his former teammate said.
“It’s something that I’ve always dealt with. It’s my personality,” Flacco said. “When things are going well, people are asking why it’s a good thing. When things aren’t going well, they want to question you and different parts of your game. I’m not going to sit here and talk too much about it. It is what it is. Ray can think what he thinks. I’m here to lead these guys, keep us on top and keep us moving forward.”
Like so many other things in football, winning and losing has a lot to do with how things are perceived from the outside. As Flacco pointed out, his calm demeanor isn’t seen as a negative when things are going well and winning games is always the best answer to any criticisms. Should Flacco help the Ravens hand the Cowboys their second loss of the season this weekend, it’s a safe bet that passion won’t be a big postgame talking point.