Jamal Lewis

Former Ravens running back Jamal Lewis is one of four ex-NFL players who are suing the league over brain injuries that they say have impaired their post-football lives, according to an Associated Press report. Lewis and Dorsey  Levens, Fulton Kuykendall and Ryan Stewart, filed the lawsuit against the National Football League and NFL Properties LLC this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, saying the NFL knew as early as the 1920s of the potential for concussions to harm its players but only went public last year.

In a moving ceremony in front of 70,944 rain-soaked fans, Jamal Lewis was inducted into the Ravens' Ring of Honor at halftime of the their game against the Cleveland Brownson Thursday night. The former Ravens running back was joined by Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, vice president and general manager Ozzie Newsome, Baltimore Colts Hall of Fame running back Lenny Moore and former Ravens Peter Boulware, Michael McCrary and Jonathan Ogden on the field at M&T Bank Stadium. In an emotional speech, Lewis thanked Ravens fans, his teammates and especially Newsome for so many memorable years in Baltiimore.

For all the flurry surrounding Jamal Lewis' indictment on federal drug charges, the Ravens star is probably only the third-most-famous person to fall under William S. Duffey Jr.'s prosecutorial gaze. Numbers one and two would have to be then-President Bill Clinton and wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom Duffey investigated as deputy to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr on the Whitewater case. For all his high-profile work - Duffey inherited a huge investigation into City Hall corruption when named U.S. attorney in Atlanta in 2001 - he tends to avoid the spotlight, friends and associates say. That's probably smart, now that President Bush has nominated him as a U.S. district judge for northern Georgia.

In 15 or 20 years, Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis will sit down and have dinner with Cleveland Browns running back Jamal Lewis. They'll cherish the old days, particularly the Super Bowl run after the 2000 season. They'll talk about how they used to train together and spur each other on at key moments during games. But that's years down the road. On Sunday, it will be Lewis vs. Lewis III when the Ravens (1-0) host the Browns (0-2) at 4:15 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium. "It's going to be another classic," Ray Lewis said, laughing.

When the Browns snagged ex-Ravens star Jamal Lewis as a free agent, Cleveland general manager Phil Savage bet that Lewis still had something left in the tank. Savage, Baltimore's former director of player personnel, was right. Lewis gained more than 1,300 yards last season and is on track for 1,100 this year. And while fans here might wonder whether the Ravens gave up too soon on Lewis - and got a dubious trade-off when they dealt for Willis McGahee - they should put those concerns aside.

The question was first posed last month, when the Ravens hosted the Cleveland Browns. Back then, I said I would rather have Jamal Lewis on a team built around its defense and a young quarterback. I still would. While neither Lewis nor Willis McGahee is having a great season for his respective team, Lewis is certainly more reliable and more consistent than the man who replaced him in Baltimore. Off-field problems earlier in his career notwithstanding, Lewis is also a better role model for young Ravens backs Ray Rice and Le'Ron McClain to follow.

Since the 2000 season, the Ravens have tried to copy the blueprint that led them to the Super Bowl title. But they've never been able to duplicate the running back of that season. Running backs like Jamal Lewis come along only once in a while, and the Ravens have yet to find another runner like Lewis. Few teams do. "It's rare to get that kind of power, speed and size in that kind of a back," Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said. "Guys like him, Chuck Muncie, Corey Dillon, John Riggins, they only come along every so often.

Jamal Lewis (right) became the 24th player in NFL history to rush for 10,000 career yards. Lewis entered the Cleveland Browns' game with the Cincinnati Bengals yesterday needing 63 yards and went over the milestone on an 8-yard burst in the third quarter. He finished with 76 yards on 16 carries as the Browns lost, 14-0. Lewis, 29, played seven seasons with the Ravens, where he gained 7,801 yards before signing as a free agent with the Browns in 2007. He gained 1,304 yards last season, his best since 2003, when he rushed for 2,066 for the Ravens.

ATLANTA - The dream of many of those who live in Bowen Homes is someday to get out of the notorious housing project. Jamal Lewis, on the other hand, never seemed able to stay away. Although Lewis grew up in a stable middle-class neighborhood about five miles from Bowen Homes, a series of squat, two-story, yellow structures built in 1961, his father, John, said yesterday that as a teen-ager, his son beat a constant path to the project. And there, his father said, Jamal formed relationships that might threaten the football superstar just when possibilities for him seemed limitless.

Federal prosecutors added a drug-related charge and new details yesterday in their cocaine conspiracy case against star Ravens running back Jamal Lewis, who is to stand trial in the middle of the football season on charges that he brokered a cocaine deal for a hometown Atlanta friend. The allegation came in a new indictment that takes the place of the one issued against Lewis and childhood friend Angelo Jackson in February. In the original indictment, Lewis was charged with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 5 kilograms of cocaine and using a cell phone in the commission of a drug crime.