Highlights from media day at Super Bowl XLVII

It wasn’t the craziest of media days when you compare it to some of the past but as the day went on, a couple of headlines grabbed most of the attention. Another day before the Super Bowl means another day that Ray Lewis has to grab all the attention and steal the spotlight. Does Lewis plan these “leaked reports” to come out when every single sports media outlet is waiting for a story to surface? It sounds absurd for something like this to blindside the Ravens literally 10 minutes before their turn at media day occurs but it was pretty convenient. Just a thought. By now most people know but for those that don’t, a report surfaced yesterday and Ray Lewis had been using deer antler spray to recover from his torn triceps injury that he suffered earlier this season.

What is deer antler spray? Well I did a little research and from what I can figure, it’s a little-known spray/pill that contains small amounts of deer IGF-1. Stands for Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 which is on the banned substance list for all NFL players. It sounds like a weird place to get enhancement drugs. So after this story came out, plenty of questions were asked to Lewis but he refused to acknowledge anything about the situation. That didn’t really surprise me because what’s he supposed to do, say “yeah, I cheated” right before the biggest game of year? Of course not but it still raises questions about how Lewis was able to recover so quickly and whether or not he did it in a honorable manner. The only thing we’ll get from Ray Lewis is that it’s “part of God’s plan” for him so we’ll never know. Anyone else just tired of all things Ray Lewis?

The 49ers did their media day right before the Ravens and it didn’t have as many fireworks, only Randy Moss claiming that he’s the greatest wide receiver of all time. I’m in the camp of Jerry Rice as the “GOAT” wide receiver but I think Moss could be considered as the most talented receiver of all time, never having reached his full potential because of his attitude/off-field issues. That’s a debate left for another day. Another thing that stood out for me was the abundance of reporters surrounding 49ers back up QB Alex Smith (pictured above) even though he never sat at a podium. One almost feels bad for him but also respect that he’s carried this entire situation with about as much class as any NFL team could ask for.