Ray Lewis was a menace for Peyton Manning to deal with on the field. In an old conversation, Manning revealed that his efforts to avoid hits from Lewis never really worked out, and he was the happiest to see Lewis retire.

“He never seemed to remember,” he told ESPN’s Stephen A Smith. “I was buying Ray Lewis's dinner, his drinks. I bought him golf clubs one year, kind of hoping he might not hit me as hard come next October.”

In a conversation with Smith at Fanatics Fest 2024, the legendary quarterback said that Lewis was the “best defensive player” he “ever played against.” He said that the former Baltimore Ravens linebacker possessed elite athleticism that he used against Manning to the fullest.

“I always thought he knew a lot of our plays…He would time it up, and he'd have this running start toward me,” Manning said in a clip posted on July 15, 2026, on the Fanatics YouTube page. 

Manning and Lewis had one of the greatest NFL rivalries that aimed to cancel out each other’s greatest strengths. The quarterback’s pre-snap audibles were against the linebacker’s play recognition and film study. 

“And it's like every time he would hit me, he’d kind of drive me into the ground, use me to help him get back up,” the former Denver Broncos player said. “He’d whisper in my ear, ‘I'll be back here in a couple of minutes, p***.’ A very friendly guy. When he retired, it was one of the greatest days of my life.”

Manning believed that Lewis had unparalleled game instincts that gave him a head start against his opponents on the field. While it worked out for Manning when they were teammates in Pro Bowl games, they were back to square one during the regular season.

Despite the on-field chess-like matchup, Manning and Lewis looked up at each other with respect. Manning even mentioned Lewis, 51, in his Hall of Fame speech in a memorable way.

Peyton Manning kept the rivalry alive in his Hall of Fame induction speech

The class preceding him gave lengthy speeches, limiting Peyton Manning and the 2021 class of Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees to just six minutes each. To keep the rivalry going, the quarterback took a dig at Lewis, who was unbothered and danced it off on stage. 

“I want to give a special thanks to my old rival Ray Lewis for being here tonight. Ray just finished giving his speech that he started in 2018,” he said.

Manning’s legendary run in the NFL was longer than Lewis’s, who retired in 2021. The former Indianapolis Colts quarterback is the only one to have won five MVP awards, and is a two-time Super Bowl champion. 

Lewis is a two-time Super Bowl champion too and won the Defensive Player of the Year award twice. The two enjoyed a unique rivalry that is talked about even today. What are your thoughts?

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Written by

Akanksha Biradar