Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis did not answer questions about the Patriots game, saying he is too distraught over the passing of Redskins safety Sean Taylor. Although Lewis and Taylor never played together, both attended the University of Miami.

In his only comments to the media, Lewis said: "I understand the magnitude of this game with the Patriots coming in. But the bottom line is I was more than a friend to Sean Taylor. I was someone he definitely looked up to. It’s unfortunate that situations happen like this. But when they do happen, some things pull you away from everything else that everybody wants you to worry about. This right here is life and it doesn’t change. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. For me, as a man, there is a lot that I’m going through right now, that I have to ask God for my strength and my faith to keep pushing on through life and keep encouraging young men to do the right things here and there.

"To think of anything else really outside of trying find a way to really deal with my personal feelings would be very selfish of me to even try to comment on anything without trying to create something that I would be making up. As a man, I would ask for your guys' sympathy just to understand that it’s a very challenging time. Not just for me but for the University of Miami family. You don’t lose a 24-year-old kid with that much promise in life. It makes you take a step back. For me, it made me take a huge, huge step back to ask God: ‘What is it that you want me to do and stop being selfish about?’ If anything, the game is going to take care of itself. I’m just going to get through this week and hopefully help a lot of my teammates get through this week as well as a lot of Hurricane family and we’re just going to go from there."