'America's Game' reveals what Ray Lewis thought of Super Bowl blackout

If you ever bump into Ray Lewis, it might be worth asking him about Area 51 or the Kennedy assassination because, apparently, the former Baltimore Ravens star linebacker is a bit of a conspiracy theorist.

That's one of the nuggets gleaned from NFL Films' latest submission to the America's Game series, which documents every Super Bowl winner using first-person accounts of three or four key figures from each championship team.

Lewis, who is joined by quarterback Joe Flacco and coach John Harbaugh for the 2012 Ravens edition of America's Game, offered the following thoughts on the half-hour power outage in the Louisiana Superdome that nearly derailed his famed "last ride" in Super Bowl XLVII.

"I'm not gonna accuse nobody of nothing — because I don't know facts," says Lewis. "But you're a zillion-dollar company, and your lights go out? No. (Laughs) No way.

"Now listen, if you grew up like I grew up — and you grew up in a household like I grew up — then sometimes your lights might go out, because times get hard. I understand that. But you cannot tell me somebody wasn't sitting there and when they say, 'The Ravens (are) about to blow them out. Man, we better do something.' ... That's a huge shift in any game, in all seriousness. And as you see how huge it was because it let them right back in the game."

Lewis was, of course, referring to the San Francisco 49ers' post-outage comeback from a 22-point third-quarter deficit, a rally that fell just short as the Ravens hung on for a 34-31 victory that brought Lewis a second ring in the final game of his 17-year NFL career.

Reflections like Lewis' thinly veiled hypothesis provide added flavor to a story, season and league that's seemingly been covered from every conceivable angle given the never-ending thirst for all things NFL.

"These are the things fans of the team love, and now you're giving them something extra," NFL Films' Chip Swain, who produced this newest chapter of America's Game, told USA TODAY Sports.

"People that know this team backwards and forwards got enjoyment out of this," added Swain, who screened the show in front of a Baltimore crowd numbering more than 2,000 earlier this week. "That's pretty cool."

Lewis and Flacco also appeared to enjoy reliving their 38-35 double overtime upset of the top-seeded Broncos in Denver, which included a halftime speech from Lewis that temporarily backfired. Ultimately, the victory was enabled by Flacco's 70-yard touchdown heave to Jacoby Jones which tied the game 35-35 at the end of regulation.

Lewis' recollection of that play?

"When you see that ball drop (into) Jacoby's hands, that's the first time in an 80-plus thousand (seat) stadium you can hear a rat (urinate) on cotton," he said.

Swain had to distill roughly eight hours of interview footage from his three subjects into a 45-minute production. He would have liked adding perspectives from additional players like Ray Rice but decided against diluting the input from his three chosen protagonists.

"You feel an obligation to tell the complete story while staying true to the concept of the show," said Swain. "You have to resist the temptation to make it a highlight film. ... It was difficult to pare out the stuff that didn't apply directly to those guys."

"Those guys" evidently reveled in the experience of producing the show, a departure from their often tedious media obligations. Flacco's often guarded personality shines through, and Swain said the quarterback enjoyed the hours-long interview after making the 10-minute drive from his New Jersey home to NFL Films headquarters in Mount Laurel, N.J., last spring.

"I remember thinking, 'Man, I hope Ray's one of those guys that goes out on top, because if he does, that means I'm winning one this year,' " recalls Flacco.

America's Game debuts on NFL Network at 9 p.m. ET on Monday.

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