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

Despite having an NCAA investigation hanging over the program, the University of Miami football team landed a strong class of recruits on national signing day Wednesday. Among the new players is the son of retiring Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis.

Ray Lewis III , a 5-foot-9 athlete (college position unclear) who scored 93 touchdowns as a running back at Lake Mary Prep in suburban Orlando, follows his father and mother to Miami.

“It’s almost overwhelming to try to understand what I’m feeling as a father,” Lewis said. “You have to keep your emotions in because it’s the unreal part about it, that I walked two days from retiring and winning a Super Bowl to walking in and seeing my son following me to my alma mater. Who writes a storybook ending like that?”

Welcome to Wednesday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

WEDNESDAY’S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
NHL: Bruins at Canadiens, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)
NBA: Celtics at Raptors, 7 p.m. (CSNNE; WEEI-FM)
NBA: Spurs at Timberwolves, 9 p.m. (ESPN)
College basketball: UConn at St. John’s, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
College basketball: Marquette at South Florida, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
College basketball: Minnesota at Michigan State, 7 p.m. (Big Ten Network)
College basketball: Baylor at Oklahoma State, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
College basketball: Saint Louis at Fordham, 8 p.m. (CBSSN)
College basketball: Iowa at Wisconsin, 9 p.m. (Big Ten Network)
College basketball: Kansas at TCU, 9 p.m. (ESPNU)
College basketball: Stanford at Arizona, 9 p.m. (ESPNews)
College basketball: Colorado State at Nevada, 10 p.m. (CBSSN)

AROUND THE WEB:

Kevin Youkilis

♦ Joba Chamberlain said Tuesday that new Yankees teammate Kevin Youkilis finally responded to the pitcher’s December voicemail, answering with a text message, although Chamberlain wouldn’t reveal what the message said, indicating he wants to minimize the issue.

“I don’t want him to have to talk about [the feud],” Chamberlain said. “He’s going to have enough to worry about over here. He’s really the only acquisition we’ve made as of now.”

Added Chamberlain: “We’re two grown men. We’re playing on the same team and our one goal is to win. I hope he came over here for that, and I would assume he came over here for that. … I’m glad to have him on our side.”

Chamberlain and Youkilis famously feuded when they were on opposite sides of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, with Chamberlain making a habit out of throwing pitches in the direction of Youk’s head.

Chamberlain reached out to Youkilis after the free agent agreed to a one-year deal to fill in for Alex Rodriguez at third base, and the pitcher seemed annoyed when Youk was slow in responding. Now Chamberlain seems ready to move forward when they meet up at spring training.

“We’ll hug it out,” Chamberlain said.

♦ Baltimore held a parade Tuesday to welcome home the Super Bowl champion Ravens, and an estimated 200,000 purple-clad fans turned out for the event.

“The city of Baltimore — I love you for ever and ever and ever and ever,” the retiring Ray Lewis told fans in front of City Hall, where the players loaded into military vehicles for a ride to M&T Bank Stadium to greet a capacity crowd.

At the stadium, the team held a short ceremony that was highlighted by Lewis doing his “Squirrel” dance.

♦ Ray Lewis might have been the star Tuesday, but he was a bit player in the Super Bowl, according to an ex-teammate.

Trevor Pryce, who was a defensive lineman for the Ravens from 2006 until 2010, questioned Lewis’ play during a radio interview with Jim Rome.

“I think he played with a case of the nerves. I think he had the yips. I really do,” Pryce said. “He had it bad. He didn’t look like himself, even his new self. That guy’s gone, that guy’s named Patrick Willis. But even the guy he was last week, he wasn’t that guy. He had a case of it bad, badly. It was almost like he was just hoping, ‘Let’s get this over with.’ ”

Although Lewis led all players with 51 tackles in the postseason, he struggled in coverage on 49ers tight end Vernon Davis on Sunday.

“Half of his check should go to [fellow Ravens linebacker] Dannell Ellerbe for making that last play on that last fade route,” Pryce said. “The other half to Greg Roman, the 49ers offensive coordinator.”

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA (answer below): On Feb. 6, 1988, Larry Bird won the 3-point competition during All-Star Weekend in Chicago, famously holding his right index finger in the air before his final shot went through the net to clinch the victory. Which player did Bird beat for the title?

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Welcome to Monday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

MONDAY’S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
NHL: Stars at Avalanche, 9 p.m. (NBCSN)
College hockey: Beanpot, Boston University vs. Northeastern, 5 p.m. (NESN)
College hockey: Beanpot, Boston College vs. Harvard, 8 p.m. (NESN)
NBA: Kings at Jazz, 9 p.m. (NBATV)
College basketball: Notre Dame at Syracuse, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
College basketball: Oklahoma at Iowa State, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
College basketball: George Mason at Old Dominion, 7 p.m. (NBCSN)
College basketball: Seton Hall at Pittsburgh, 9 p.m. (ESPNU)
College basketball: Texas at West Virginia, 9 p.m. (ESPN)

AROUND THE WEB:

Ray Lewis

♦ Ray Lewis ended his career a champion Sunday night when his Ravens held off the 49ers to win the Super Bowl, but the tarnish on his legacy remains. During an interview with CBS’ Shannon Sharpe that aired during the pregame show, Lewis addressed the controversy surrounding his role in a double murder outside an Atlanta nightclub in 2000.

Lewis, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and testified against two companions who were eventually acquitted, claimed “the system” needed to better investigate the case.

“It’s simple,” Lewis said when asked what he would say to the victims’ families. “God has never made a mistake. That’s just who He is, you see. And if our system — it’s the sad thing about our system — if our system took the time to really investigate what happened 13 years ago, maybe they would have got to the bottom line truth. But the saddest thing ever was that a man looked me in my face and told me, ‘We know you didn’t do this, but you’re going down for it anyway.’ To the family, if you knew, if you really knew the way God works, he don’t use people who commits anything like that for His glory. No way. It’s the total opposite.”

After the interview, Sharpe told fellow hosts that the fact Lewis had come so far “is a testament to how this man has transformed his life,” and he got defensive when fellow host Boomer Esiason questioned Lewis’ “complex” issues.

“How is it complex?” Sharpe demanded to know from Esiason.

Responded Esiason: “He was involved in a double murder and I’m not so sure he gave us all the answers we were looking for,” Esiason said. “He knows what went on there. He can obviously just come out and say it. He doesn’t want to say it. He paid off the families — I get all that, that’s fine. But that doesn’t take away from who he is as a football player. I appreciate you going down there and asking him that direct question. I’m not so sure I buy the answer.”

♦ ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Sunday that the Jets still are looking to trade Tim Tebow, but there isn’t any interest. New York is asking for a mid- to late-round draft pick, but apparently other teams have no confidence in Tebow’s ability to lead a team.

Said one NFL general manager: “I think his career is over without playing another position.”

♦ The family of Muhammad Ali denied a report that the boxing legend was near death and posted a photo of him sitting in a chair wearing a Ray Lewis T-shirt. Daughter May May Ali said her father was watching the Super Bowl at home in Arizona.

Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, turned 71 on Jan. 17. A British tabloid quoted his brother Rahman, who acknowledged having no contact with the family since last summer, as saying Ali was in bad health.

“He’s fine, in fact he was talking well this morning,” May May Ali said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “These rumors pop up every once in a while, but there’s nothing to them.”

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA (answer below): On Feb. 4, 1990, which Bruin became the 32nd goaltender in NHL history with 200 victories following a 3-2 victory over the Quebec Nordiques?

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Mitch Ross, owner of the SWATS supplement company that allegedly provided Ray Lewis with a deer-antler spray that contains the banned substance IGF-1, joined Mut & Merloni on Thursday to talk about this week’s Sports Illustrated story that put him in the spotlight.

“You know what I’ve learned about print media, media in general? They do their best to destroy whatever they find that is good,” said Ross, who added that he plans to travel to New Orleans and hold a press conference Friday. “They say antler velvet doesn’t have IGF-1 in it. Then they say it does. Either it does or it doesn’t. Which is it? Well, we know it does. Should athletes be able to use natural things to recover their body, or should they do it the Lance Armstrong way, or the Barry Bonds way. Which way should they do it? The government, the Mitchell Report, wanted alternatives and education — alternatives, that’s what this is. That’s what my company is all about, providing alternative performance enhancing. And do you think I got to this stage by lying, giving things that don’t work?”

Ross insisted that the deer-antler spray he sells does not deserve the bad name it’s getting. He agreed that HGH should be banned by the NFL, “in its synthetic form, absolutely.” But he compared his product to getting IGF-1 from eating venison.

“If you eat steak you get creatine in steak. … It’s the same exact process,” he said. “They couldn’t ban it. It’s a naturally occurring substance. That’s the whole problem here, where you cross hairs with synthetic and natural. That’s the problem. The education’s not there.”

Ross said he worked with then-Devil Rays first baseman Carlos Pena in 2009 after his product was tested and cleared.

“[MLBPA assistant general counsel] Bob Lenaghan tested this in 2009 for Carlos Pena. I worked with Pena in 2009. Lenaghan says, ‘Fine, use it.’ In 2010 1/2-11, they banned it. I’m currently suing the Major League Baseball Players Association as we speak.”

To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page.

Ray Lewis

Former Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer is taking some shots at the retiring Ray Lewis.

“It’s definitely all about him,” Toomer told USA Today. “Once a guy goes to the center of the field, goes into the victory formation on the last play of his last home game … I just don’t think the Giants or any organization I’ve ever been a part of, even growing up, would allow somebody to single themselves out like that.

“If you single yourself out after you make a play, that’s one thing,” Toomer continued. “But to walk out on the field reminds me of the WWE, like the Rock coming out. You’re becoming a caricature of yourself. It’s exhausting. I don’t know why somebody would want that.”

Toomer, whose Giants lost to the Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV when Lewis earned MVP honors, did mention how he “loves” Lewis as a football player and called him a first-ballot Hall of Famer. However, he also talked about Lewis pleading guilty to obstruction of justice after two men died during a Super Bowl XXXIV party in Atlanta in 2000.

“If you want to say you’re Mr. Religious and all of that, have a clean record. Don’t say all of that stuff if you know there’s stuff that might come back,” Toomer said. “Those are the things that, when I look at him, I just think hypocrisy.”

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

According to a Sports Illustrated report, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis appears to have used a banned substance to help him recover from a torn triceps earlier this season.

Almost immediately after Lewis’ injury in October, a company called Sports With Alternatives to Steroids (S.W.A.T.S.) sent Lewis a number of items, including a deer-antler spray that contains IGF-1. That substance is banned by the NFL.

S.W.A.T.S. owner Mitch Ross recorded a phone conversation with Lewis hours after the player’s Oct. 14 injury. In the conversation, Ross explains to Lewis how to use the spray (under the tongue).

According to the SI story:

Ross prescribed a deluxe program, including holographic stickers on the right elbow; copious quantities of the powder additive; sleeping in front of a beam-ray light programmed with frequencies for tissue regeneration and pain relief; drinking negatively charged water; a 10-per-day regimen of the deer-antler pills that will “rebuild your brain via your small intestines” (and which Lewis said he hadn’t been taking, then swallowed four during the conversation); and spritzes of deer-antler velvet extract (the Ultimate Spray) every two hours.

Also from the story:

Toward the end of the talk, Lewis asked Ross to “just pile me up and just send me everything you got, because I got to get back on this this week.”

Asked about his relationship with the company, Lewis tried to downplay it, although he acknowledged asking for “some more of the regular stuff” after his injury.

Said Lewis, shortly before ending the interview: “I think a lot of things helped me.”

Lewis was asked about the story during Tuesday’s Super Bowl media day and had little to say.

“Two years ago that was the same report,” Lewis said. “I wouldn’t give that report or him any of my press. He’s not worthy of that. Next question.”

Welcome to Tuesday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

TUESDAY’S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
NHL: Devils at Bruins, 7 p.m. (NESN)
NHL: Islanders at Penguins, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)
NBA: Hornets at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. (NBA TV)
College basketball: North Carolina at Boston College, 9 p.m. (ESPNU; WEEI-AM)
College basketball: Wisconsin at Ohio State, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
College basketball: NC State at Virginia, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
College basketball: Vanderbilt at Tennessee, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
College basketball: Kentucky at Mississippi, 9 p.m. (ESPN)
College basketball: Nebraska at Minnesota, 9 p.m. (Big Ten Network)

AROUND THE WEB:

Ray Lewis

♦ Following the Patriots’ loss to the Ravens in last Sunday’s AFC championship game, Wes Welker‘s wife, Anna Burns Welker, posted a comment on Facebook mocking Ray Lewis for his apparent hypocrisy. Welker noted that Lewis “paid off a family” after being involved in a double murder outside a Super Bowl party in Atlanta in 2000 and has fathered six children with four women.

On Monday, Lewis insisted he has forgiven Burns Welker, who apologized one day after her attack.

“I’ve always been a firm believer of the Good Book, and the Good Book always confirms, even a fool is counted wise until he opens he or she mouth,” Lewis said. “Sometimes people just say silly stuff. And they say it out of emotion.

“Sometimes you need to let the game take care of the game. We lost up there last year, and I didn’t hear one teammate say anything about nobody there because we have respect for that team, that they won it fair and square. So for her to come out and say what she said — listen, I truly forgive her, and I have no hard feelings against her at all, but I believe people just make mistakes and say foolish things sometimes.”

Lewis also acknowledged he has made mistakes in his life, and he appreciates that he has been given an opportunity to win people over.

“I don’t know nobody that’s ever lived a perfect life,” he said. “I have [seen] people that have been through things before. Realistically, most of the time when you find somebody that goes through adversity, you really find out what their true character is. For me, people really now have taken time to find out who I am … and [what] my character is.”

Added Lewis: “For someone who has been through adversity and found his way out and really just showing what my true character is and who I am as a person.”

♦ Days after President Barack Obama said football needs to be safer for parents like him to consider allowing their kids to play, hard-hitting Ravens safety Ed Reed agreed.

“I am with Obama,” Reed said. “I have a son. I am not forcing football on my son. If he wants to play it … I can’t make decisions for him. All I can do is say, ‘Son, I played it so you don’t have to.’ ”

Reed added that football’s medical system needs major improvement.

“We’ve got some leaks in it that need to be worked out,” he said. “Every medical training room should be upgraded; training rooms can be a lot better.

“When you’ve got the president talking about it, you’ve got something.”

Meanwhile, Kristin Cavallari, who is engaged to Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, said she will push their 5-month-old son to a sport other than football when he gets older.

“I will try to steer Cam in a different direction, maybe a sport that isn’t so aggressive,” she said. “Maybe baseball — something where he doesn’t have to get hit.”

♦ The Jets reportedly have had internal discussions about former Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the 2007 No. 1 overall pick who struggled to stay focused and in shape and was out of the NFL after the 2009 season. Russell is planning to attempt a comeback after being out of the game the last two seasons.

New general manager John Idzik told New York sports radio station WFAN on Monday that he wants to challenge incumbent Mark Sanchez, whose contract makes him difficult to trade. Idzik recently got a chance to meet Sanchez and let him know where he’s coming from.

“Yeah, I’m comfortable with Mark being a Jet,” Idzik said. “I told him as well, we’re going to add competition. … It’s going to help make Mark and everybody else better.”

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA: On Jan. 29, 1996, the Red Sox sent outfielder Lee Tinsley, reliever Ken Ryan and minor league outfielder Glenn Murray to the Phillies for which pitcher (and two minor leaguers)?

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We’re in the White House right now, which is like, ‘Mama, I made it.’ ” – LeBron James, as the Heat visited President Obama to celebrate their 2012 NBA championship

STAT OF THE DAY: 23 – Consecutive penalty kills for the Bruins to open the season

‘NET RESULTS (mobile users, check the website to see the videos): A player for the Russian Professional Basketball League team Unics Kazan makes a pass to his coach on the sideline. The alert coach makes a quick pass to another player.

Magic big man Glen Davis catches Gerald Wallace as the Nets forward goes in for a layup and gives him a lift to the baseline.

TRIVIA ANSWER: Heathcliff Slocumb

SOOTHING SOUNDS: Charlie Wilson, former lead singer of The Gap Band, was born on this day in 1953.

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.”