Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis took exception to Indianapolis wide receiver Reggie Wayne calling his dance at the end of Sunday’s AFC wild-card game disrespectful.
Lewis, who announced last week that he’s retiring from the NFL after 17 seasons when the Ravens are eliminated from the playoffs, said he wasn’t taunting the Colts or rubbing it in.
“It wasn’t about them at that time,” Lewis said. “That was about capping off a heck of a legacy for 17 years that when he was in Pop Warner playing football, I was in Baltimore.
“I guess the trot around the field was disrespectful, too? No. It wasn’t even about (the Colts). The game was over. Triple zeros; it was over. I didn’t go towards their sideline and make no big issue of that because I have never been that type of player.”
Lewis and Wayne are friends who both played at the University of Miami.
“Reggie will tell you how much I love him, and it was never nothing personal between him and the Colts,” Lewis said. “It wasn’t even about them. It was about me honoring my team and honoring my city.”
Wayne told an Indianapolis radio station earlier in the week that he didn’t like Lewis’ “squirrel” dance on the final play.
“I saw it as disrespectful,” Wayne said in an interview with WNDE-AM. “They’d already had a tribute every quarter.”
With the win over the Colts last Sunday, the Ravens moved on to face the Broncos on Saturday in Denver.