Ray Lewis

Less than a week after his final game, the Ravens are planning to build a statue of Ray Lewis, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said Thursday.

Bisciotti said he doesn’t know where the statue would be built, but that it could be in progress soon.

“I think he set himself apart in Baltimore sports history,” Bisciotti said, “and we will certainly look into it and I would not be surprised if there is one there in the next year or two.”

Lewis, a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and a 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker, has no plans to come back as part of the coaching staff, according to Baltimore coach John Harbaugh.

“I have asked him, but he’s not interested,” Harbaugh said.

Ray Lewis

Ray Lewis called Mitch Ross, the co-owner of Sports With Alternatives to Steroids who said he gave Lewis performance-enhancing drugs, a “coward” with “no credibility” on Wednesday.

Lewis, in New Orleans for Sunday’s Super Bowl, also said he was “agitated” over the Sports Illustrated report that he used treatments including deer-antler spray, which contains a substance (IGF-1) banned by the NFL, to recover from a triceps injury earlier this season.

“Our world is a very secret society,” Lewis said of the NFL. “We try to protect our world as much as we can. When you let cowards come in and do things like that, to try to disturb something, I’ve said it before and I’ve said a million times, the reason why I’m smiling is because it’s so funny of a story.

“I’ve never, ever took what he says I was supposed to do. It’s just sad that someone can have this much attention on a stage this big where the dreams are really real. I don’t need it, my teammates don’t need it, the 49ers don’t need it. Nobody needs it because it just really shows you that people really plan things and try to attack people from the outside. It’s just very foolish. The guy has no credibility. He’s been sued four or five times over this same B.S. I just truly believe he doesn’t have the privilege for me to speak about it ever again.”

Lewis missed 10 games with the triceps injury and reportedly used a number of SWATS treatments, including the deer-antler spray, to speed his recovery. Ross told ESPN Radio last week that Lewis “used every product I had” and is only denying it because he may be “scared of [Roger] Goodell.”

However, a professor at Johns Hopkins University told The Baltimore Sun that, despite SWATS’ claims, there isn’t an acceptable scientific way that IGF-1 can be delivered orally.

“If there were, a lot of people would be happy that they don’t need to get shots anymore,” Dr. Roberto Salvatori told the Sun. “It’s just simply not possible for it to come from a spray.”

Despite his demeanor at the press conference, Lewis maintained, that he wasn’t angry about the report — in fact, that he’s never angry — because he is “too blessed to be stressed.”

“You can use a different word,” he said. “You can use the word agitated, because I’m here to win the Super Bowl. I’m not here to entertain somebody that doesn’t affect that one way or another. The word agitated is probably better.”

Ray Lewis

The Ravens could be in for a major boost at the end of the regular season with the return of linebacker Ray Lewis, Yahoo! Sports reports.

Sources told Yahoo! Sports that Lewis, who tore his triceps in mid-October, could return as soon as Week 15 when the Ravens take on the Broncos.

“At the end of the day, you’re going to see Ray Lewis again,” said veteran linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, whose been filling Lewis’ role since the injury. “For the greatest player in Ravens history to be able to return from this injury and come on this championship run with us? When he was said to be down and out? Man, that’s critical mass. When he comes through that tunnel, that’s going to be be the earthquake and the tsunami.”

Lewis, who was placed on the injured reserve-designated to return list, could practice as soon as he’s eligible this Thursday, according to Yahoo! As long as there are no setbacks, it is almost certain that Lewis will return sometime in the next month.

“I would say it’s possible,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “We can’t put Ray out there until he’s ready to win those battles. But if it can be done, yes, we want to do it.”

Terrell Suggs

The Ravens lost two star defensive players this week, but last year’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year might be back on the field before the season is over.

Terrell Suggs practiced for the Ravens on Wednesday for the first time since he tore his right Achilles tendon last season. Suggs was not 100 percent and was still favoring his right  leg, so the Ravens are cautiously optimistic.

“To what extent, to what he’s able to do, I think we should temper our expectations a little bit,” coach John Harbaugh said. “He’s coming off a very serious injury. I think he’s worked really hard. He’s done a great job with the rehab, he’s followed protocol. He had no setbacks throughout the course of the whole deal.”

Ray Lewis, the emotional leader of the defense, has been ruled out for the year by Harbaugh, but he was placed on the injured reserve with the “designated to return” tag. The 37-year-old linebacker could return to practice after six weeks, but reports indicate he is not likely to be ready by that time.

The Ravens activated linebacker Josh Bynes from their practice squad to fill Lewis’ position.

Lee Evans

The Jaguars released eight-year veteran wide receiver Lee Evans Sunday.

The 31-year-old spent last season with the Ravens, for whom, most (in)famously, in the AFC championship game, he had what would have been a sure touchdown pass knocked out of his hands by Sterling Moore, ultimately sending the Patriots on to the Super Bowl and ending Baltimore’s season.

Evans spent the majority of his career in Buffalo, where he played under current Jaguars coach Mike Mularkey. In an article on the Jaguars website, Mularkey said Evans “just wasn’t the same player, obviously.” The coach added that Evans apparently felt the same way.

“The route-running, it looked like it was hurting him on some of those breaks,” Mularkey said, adding that Evans might retire. “I don’t think that will ever go away. We had talked in the last week. He approached us and he recognized he wasn’t the same guy on film.”

After releasing Evans, the Jaguars moved rookie receiver Justin Blackmon to the first-team offense in Sunday afternoon practices.

Ricky Williams

The Ravens needed depth at running back, so they have reportedly signed former Dolphin Ricky Williams, according to ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio.

Williams, 34, rushed for over 1,000 yards five times in eight seasons from 2000 to 2009, twice rushing for double-digit touchdowns. Last season, however, Williams split rushing duties with Ronnie Brown, gaining just 673 yards on the ground. Williams also brings some receiving skills to the Ravens’ running corps, averaging over 35 receptions per season across his career.

Williams’ production has been overshadowed by off-the-field issues over the last few seasons. Williams opted to retire from football after the 2003-04 season instead of pay a $650,000 fine and face a four-game suspension for testing positive for marijuana a second time in his NFL career.

It was rumored at the time Williams might have failed a third drug test prior to retirement, a rumor that was confirmed when the NFL suspended Williams for the entire 2006 season after a confirmed fourth violation of the NFL drug policy.

Williams has also become more injury-prone over the last five years: he broke a bone in his left arm in July 2006 with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts, missing two months, and tore a pectoral in November 2007, missing the rest of the season.

Dan Pompei of NationalFootballPost.com reported Sunday that the Ravens have replaced traditional playbooks with iPads this season.

The primary advantage of iPads is security. If an iPad is lost or stolen, or an ex-player takes it with him, the team can remotely erase its contents.

Pompel wrote that this is not the only use for iPads in the NFL. The Falcons use them for pre-draft interviews. The tablets keeps a checklist of questions for each player then compiles them into paragraph form.

Pompel also wrote that with a new video-downloading program coming out for the iPad, the tablets will become even more popular with scouts.

Baltimore county police say they won’t discipline an officer who, after stopping Ravens running back Ray Rice for the tint on his vehicle’s windshield, asked for Rice’s autograph, The Associated Press reports. Police spokesman Lt. Robert McCullough said that investigators found Rice was not given special treatment.

Rice had tweeted that he had gotten out of a ticket in exchange for an autograph, then retracted the post, saying that the tweet had been poorly worded. McCullough said that the officer who stopped Rice gave him a verbal warning about the windshield tint.

Baltimore Ravens tight end Todd Heap, who was on the receiving end of a helmet-to-helmet hit from Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather last Sunday, will start for the Ravens on Sunday against the Bills. Heap had been listed as questionable in Baltimore’s final injury report. For the full list of inactives in the Ravens-Bills game, click here.

Rookie wide receiver Demaryius Thomas, the Broncos top draft pick, was injured during Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens. Thomas was hit hard on a second-quarter kickoff return and fumbled the ball to the Ravens in the process. Thomas took a hit from Jason Phillips at the Denver 16 and Ken Hamlin recovered the fumble for the Ravens. Thomas’ head was whipped to one side and crumpled to the ground after the hit; he was down on the field for several minutes while being treated by medical officials until getting to the sideline under his own power.

Officials said Thomas suffered head and neck injuries, according to Fanhouse. The athletic receiver will not return to action during the game. Thomas had two catches for 12 yards before the injury.