Ray Lewis will go down as one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history, and he almost certainly will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. It turns out that Lewis also is a noted conspiracy theorist.
During an interview for NFL Films' "America's Game," which aired Monday night on NFL Network, Lewis let on that he didn't think the infamous power outage during the Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl XLVII victory in New Orleans was an accident.
"I'm not gonna accuse nobody of nothing -- because I don't know facts," Lewis said, according to USA Today's Nate Davis. "But you're a zillion-dollar company, and your lights go out? No. (Laughs) No way.
"Now listen, if you grew up like I grew up -- and you grew up in a household like I grew up -- then sometimes your lights might go out, because times get hard. I understand that. But you cannot tell me somebody wasn't sitting there and when they say, 'The Ravens (are) about to blow them out. Man, we better do something.' ... That's a huge shift in any game, in all seriousness. And as you see how huge it was because it let them right back in the game."
The San Francisco 49ers nearly erased a 28-6 deficit after the power outage at the Superdome, but they came up just short on the final drive.
It's easy for Lewis to prod at the power outage while he wears his second championship ring, but there is no question that the more than 30-minute delay -- ultimately traced to a faulty electrical delay device -- derailed the Ravens' momentum.
In a show of humor (we assume), 49ers CEO Jed York responded to Lewis' claims via Twitter:
"There is no conspiracy," York wrote. "I pulled the plug."
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