Ray Lewis

Following the Baltimore Ravens' second Super Bowl title, questions have come up about future Hall-of-Famer Ray Lewis and the possibility of his using performance enhancing drugs. In my personal opinion, you must be crazy to think Ray Lewis wasn't taking a PED. Lewis suffered a torn triceps muscle in the later part of the season, at least late enough to confidently say he would not play for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs. The normal recovery process for the injury Lewis suffered is six months, he came back in 10 weeks. Another suspicious element to the Lewis story is how he performed this miraculous recovery in the last year of his career at age 37. Many would say when Lewis returned from his injury, he was playing even better than he was before he was hurt.

Bill Simmons wrote an article grantland.com asking why no journalists or reporters have asked Lewis whether he has taken any PEDs since suffering his severe tear in his triceps muscle. The best point in the Simmons' article was made about Lewis' age. He compared Lewis to other older superstars who both returned from injury abnormally fast and also players who posted career-bests later in their careers. In addition to his head growing at the age of 35, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs at the age of 36. Prior to that record-breaking season, he had never hit even 50 home runs in a single season. A subject more similar to Lewis would have to be Mark McGwire, who hit 70 home runs at age 34 after tearing a pectoral muscle. 

The two baseball players mentioned in the paragraph above were both linked to PEDs and both denied entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame, as I believe Lewis should be also. I am not saying there are no former NFL players in the Hall of Fame who have taken PEDs, but it should be taken into consideration during the voting process for Lewis because I do believe he can be linked to them.