 When we look up the definition of dominant, it means most important, powerful, or influential. And those three words could definitely describe Ray Lewis. But to be the most dominant player on your team in a year, that's cool, that's great. To be the most dominant player on your team in the past five years, hey, that's even better. To be the most dominant player on your team in your era, that's even more amazing. But this right here, to be the most dominant player this century, and this was voted on by fans, by the way, but to be the most dominant player this century, you know how long a century is? That's a hundred years, unless I'm mistaken. But to be voted the most dominant player in the past 100 years, that says a lot. And that shows a lot of people have a lot of respect for you because y'all know fans, fans can be really nasty. Fans can be just harsh, they can be rough. But despite how many fans may feel about Ray Lewis, the respect is there. Especially for the on-field work that he did and put in, the respect that has to be there because Ray Lewis, he commanded it, he earned it. So on this list, with him to go from 175 players that were included in the voting, he made it through 175 players, all down to one. It was Ray Lewis. And when you think about it, think about the definition, again, of dominance. Most important, powerful, influential. That's Ray Lewis in a nutshell. And see, when you think about his impact, you can even, obviously on the football field, he was like that. Defensive player of the year, two-time Super Bowl champion, so many accolades. Got all the sacks, picks, force fumbles, big hits, big plays. We done seen it all. And the same thing I always say about Eric Reed. Tyrell Suggs, too, said about Ray Lewis, like, hey, you can watch Highlights. And Highlights are great. And Highlights will do it justice, but there was nothing. Like watching the game while it was on TV or if you were there in person, there was nothing like seeing it live. Because when Ray Lewis was on that field, oh, man, you just knew. You just knew, like, the difference. They were going to make some plays, man. Whether it was Ray Lewis himself or somebody around, they were going to make some plays. And Ray Lewis, he made plenty of plays over the years, man. I always say my favorite play came when the Ravens were playing the Chargers. And it was fourth and one. Chargers have been driving down the field. Game is on the line. If they get the first down, they got a shot to go for a touchdown. But if they don't, game is over. Ravens win. It's an away game. Fourth and one. Ray Lewis times it perfectly. The Chargers do a handoff to Darren Sprouls. Ray Lewis times it perfectly right up the gut through the middle. Here's some in the backfield. Game over. That was the moment for me right there. And I know there are plenty of other moments that you could choose from, but that right there was my favorite Ray Lewis moment. Because it showed not only his dominance, his physical dominance, but it showed the mental dominance. And in order to be dominant in the NFL, you got to have both. You have to. There is no way that you can just get by with physicality alone. Because the NFL is more mental than it is physical. So you got to have the smarts too. You can't just be all grown, but you're all big and strong. And okay, this is going to get me by now. No, no, no, no, no, no, my friend. It's a lot more than that. And Ray Lewis obviously a student of the game. Like somebody commented the other day on one of the videos, they were talking about somebody from UM. Man, I missed the University of Miami boys because the way that they watched film, they watched film like they were watching movies. They really dissected it. They really dove into it. They did their homework and extra credit. And you know, like I would always love just listening to Ray Lewis talk about football. I would love hearing him talk about football because you could tell he was not only a student of the game, but he appreciated it. He appreciated all the extra stuff that came with it. He appreciated diving into film, doing research, learning about this quarterback, what they like to do, what they don't like to do. He learned about tendencies and all that. Reading offense. He loved doing all of that stuff. And for him to be dominant, like for somebody to be considered dominant, you can't just talk to talk. That ain't gonna work, my friend. You can't just talk to talk. You got to be able to walk it. You got to be able to deliver too. So Ray Lewis, the on-field dominance was there, but then when you also think about it, think about just what he did for people off the field. Obviously, the influence was there. There's so many people. Even till this day, they need a little extra motivation. They will go look up a Ray Lewis speech. They'll go look up Ray Lewis talk, whether he was talking to the Ravens, whether he was talking to a high school team, whoever he was talking to, they will go look up a Ray Lewis speech. I'm sure a lot of y'all have done that before, too. That was even one point. It was years ago. I'm sure I'm way behind now, but there was one point where I probably had watched every single Ray Lewis speech that was on YouTube. This was years ago, but when you would watch it, it'd be like, whoa, all right. But when you think about Ray Lewis, too, another thing you think about is how he made people around him better and provided opportunities for people around him, too. That's what dominant people do, especially dominant football players. They can make you look better, whether you're a player or whether you're a coach. Because think about players, think about how many linebackers lined up next to Ray Lewis, and they cashed in. Because a lot of teams were like, look, the Ravens, they keeping Ray Lewis, even though that one year, I almost thought he was going to go to the Cowboys or the Broncos. I was really scared when he was in free agency. I said, oh, we about to lose Ray. But anyway, he stayed. But he brought all these linebackers that lined up next to Ray Lewis, and they went on, and they got paid. Because teams were like, oh, they keeping Ray Lewis. We can go after the other guy next to him. He's probably really good, huh? Remember DeNail Ellaby? I love DeNail Ellaby, too. I really liked him a lot. Remember Adalee's time? Oh, Adalee's time was nice, man. Remember Ed Hartwell? Remember Bart Scott? Bart Scott. And those guys were cool. Now, they were nice, because DeNail Ellaby, I think he got signed by the Saints. He got obviously by the Jets. Adalee Thomas by the Patriots. Ed Hartwell by the Falcons, right? And there were plenty others, too. There were plenty others. But then it went further beyond that because it went to coaching staff, too. Because Ray Lewis' dominance, it impacted everybody on every single level. Because with Ray Lewis, like, remember, like Marvin Lewis, he was on the Raven staff, Jack Del Rio, and there's plenty other guys. They went on to not just be position coaches. It ain't nothing wrong with being a position coach. But these guys were going to become defensive coordinators and then head coaches. Because some of them had already been defensive coordinators with the Baltimore Ravens. And they coached Ray Lewis. So team saw that, like, oh, you coach Ray Lewis? Okay, you know what? Let's hire you and let's learn what you learned from him. And what did you learn from coaching him? I'm sure you taught him some stuff, too, now. But what did you get from him? The man was crazy, man. He was just crazy good. And then to think about how much it takes to be a consistent player in the NFL. Because remember, only 1% of people make it to the NFL, but then on top of that, what makes it even harder, people don't last. I think the average Korean NFL is, like, three years. It's three years. Well, Ray Lewis played, like, 16, 17 years. I think 16. So with him playing all these years in the league, but remaining such a great player, that says a lot, man. Not everybody can do that. So I got to give kudos to Ray Lewis and kudos to the people who voted him as the most dominant player, non-QB, of the last century. Because it just, it makes sense. Team Keep It Clean, I love y'all. Appreciate y'all. Hey, this is the week. Football is starting this week. One week from now, we'll be able to see the Ravens play. But in just four days from now, we'll see our first regular season game of the 2023 season when the Chiefs play the Lions. So we made it, y'all. We made it. It's been a long offseason, but we done got through it, man. And it went by faster than ever. And we here now. So y'all Team Keep It Clean, make sure you subscribe because we're gonna have a lot of fun on here like we do every year. If you're new here, thank you. If you're old here, thank you. Thank you, regardless. Subscribe to the channel, turn your notifications on. You can leave a like on the video because hopefully you like what you saw. But let's have a great year, y'all. I appreciate you. Looking forward to a lot of fun. Shout out to Ray Lewis for his domination. We out.