As Super Bowl XLVII draws nearer several Pittsburgh Steelers players are letting it be known which team they are cheering for and why.
Linebacker LaMarr Woodley was on Sports Talk 1040 Radio in Florida on Monday and was asked if it burns him up that the Baltimore Ravens are playing in the Super Bowl.
“No, it doesn\’t burn me up at all,” said Woodley. “Actually, I\’m looking forward to them playing knowing that it\’s Ray Lewis\’ last go around and it would be nice to see him go out on a positive note. Like I told people in the past, before I played in the 2008 Super Bowl I had an opportunity to talk to Ray Lewis at an event and the guy talked to me about 30 minutes, and we had just beat them in the AFC Championship game. And he was just telling me how important it is to just go out there and take advantage of this opportunity and win this football game, because you never know when this opportunity is going to come around again.
“So any guy that go out there and give you that kind of advice after you just beat them in the AFC Championship game, and that\’s your rival, I have a lot of respect for Ray Lewis. So i would love to see him go out and get another Super Bowl ring.”
Woodley was then asked point blank if he indeed is rooting for the Ravens to beat the 49ers this coming Sunday.
“Yeah, definitely,” Woodley said. “Like I said, I would love to see an opportunity for Ray Lewis to win another Super Bowl before he leaves. You know he\’s been around here for a long time and the Baltimore Ravens are in our division so it makes our division look good. So even though it\’s a big time rival, and I\’ve said some things in the past, I\’ve got respect for a certain guy on their time and I know a lot of guys on their team. So, who cares?”
Who cares? A lot of Steelers fans certainly do and safety Ryan Clark has already found that out first hand on Twitter after pledging his support early on for Lewis and the Ravens. Clark deleted his Twitter account on Sunday and it is easy to speculate that he did so because of all the hell he was catching for hoping the Ravens win. His wife, however, says the reason was because he wanted to dedicate more time to his rehab and training. On Monday Clark did appear to change his allegiance in an ESPN interview as he now apparently wants the San Francisco 49ers to win.
Woodley cheering for the Ravens is quite an about-face from what he said on the NFL Network back in June of 2011. At that time the Steelers linebacker said that Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco would never win a Super Bowl “in this lifetime.”
“No, not at all because they have to go through one team — that\’s the Pittsburgh Steelers in that AFC Championship,” Woodley said in that interview. “So in order for them to get to the Super Bowl, they have to beat us, and we\’re not gonna let that happen once we get that close. So that\’s not gonna happen in this lifetime.”
That lifetime has 60 minutes left in it now and it appears as if Woodley is comfortable with the Ravens proving him wrong.
