While recovering from a torn triceps injury that landed him on Injured Reserve (designated to return), Ray Lewis hasn’t been present on the Ravens sidelines.
It looks like he won’t be found on your TV screens either.
While it may be hard to stare at anything aside from Faith Hill’s age defying, 45-year old legs, you’ll also notice that Lewis has been removed from the featured intro montage for NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
In the horribly executed video of Verizon Wireless product placement and NBC show advertisement that also happens to feature a little bit of football, Lewis was shown pulling a helmet out of his locker and running through a virtual tunnel with images of Ravens fans plastered on the walls – not anymore.
Replacing Lewis during the intro is Jets All-Pro center, Nick Mangold. Offensive linemen rarely get publicity, but Mangold is surely one of the best at his position within the NFL.
Ravens fans shouldn’t feel spited though, Mangold’s teammate, Darrell Revis, was in the intro at the beginning of the season but after suffering a torn ACL and going out for the remainder of the season, he’s been removed from the video too.
It would have been nice to see another member of the Ravens featured doing Sunday’s national broadcast, but aside from Ray Rice – who at the time was being ignored by his own coaching staff – the Ravens lacked any player that would have garnered any glitz and glamour for such a video full of high-profile players.
Now that Terrell Suggs is back, maybe NBC will audible once again.
Here’s a clip of the old video featuring Lewis:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNYAJB5Aybs [/youtube]
And here’s the new version:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9kMeJcmWQU[/youtube]
