Hope to see you at the pool Ray!

"Water Polo is......"

How would you finish that sentence???

The first thing that comes to my mind is NOT "easy". But apparently, Baltimore Raven's linebacker Ray Lewis is under the impression that of all the sports out there, water polo is easy in comparison to football.

In a pre-game media session Lewis gave this quote about their upcoming game against The Jets:

"But we don't need no hope. Y'all can keep your hope because we've got enough hope over here. We're packing our bags, and we're not packing our bags to come play water polo."

Well, Ray, in light of this lovely trash talking you were doing, I am glad that you and your team were victorious last night in a defensive battle that ended 10-9. You seem to be leading the charge there on defense. So you are, at least, backing up all the talk. 

But, next time when you choose to talk a little smack, maybe do so with a little more information. Water polo would probably not be the first sport to come to my mind in the easy category, but that is because I play it. I know exactly what it takes to play a game. Swimming back and forth for an hour. Playing both offense and defense. Wrestling, sprinting, jumping, blocking, getting kicked, pulled and punched. All while not standing on anything. 

Despite how hard it is, I play because I love it and it is fun. Which is probably exactly how Ray feels about football. (The multi-million dollar contracts have nothing to do with it.) Our sport is so small not too many people know what it is really like. So, Ray, if you want to do any cross training in the off season, grab your speedo (or trunks, although you are going to want to create the least amount of drag as possible) and come on over to the pool! After you have given it a whirl, then you can, by all means, speak your mind about water polo. 

Oh and Ray, thank you for mentioning water polo during that press conference. It is nice to see water polo in the headlines sometimes. :) An article about it landed in the NY Times. Creating awareness for our difficult, yet awesome sport is always a great thing.