Before Retiring, Jamal Lewis Wants Wins

Once Jamal Lewis returned to his hometown of Atlanta on Wednesday night, things looked the same from afar. Yes, he is retiring after this season. No, it was not an instant decision based on the Cleveland Browns' 30-6 loss at the Chicago Bears last Sunday -- after which Lewis announced his NFL exit plans.

He left the University of Tennessee after three seasons and the Baltimore Ravens after a Super Bowl XXXV championship and seven seasons. This third season with the Browns gives him 10 full NFL years.

Cleveland is 1-7, but Lewis said his choice would be the same if his team was 7-1.

And though the Browns have a bye this week and Lewis, 30, has quiet time to reconsider, he said he will not.

"Honestly, I had made up my mind before the season,'' he said via telephone from Atlanta. "I even contemplated whether to come back for this season with a new staff, new coach, not knowing if guys would buy in, hearing about what coach [Eric] Mangini brought to the table, not knowing if I could buy into that. It's a lot of moving parts. After that Chicago game, I didn't want to bottle it up any longer. I just put it out there. I want to hang up my cleats on my own terms.

"When you are 1-7, a lot of stuff gets magnified. That's the problem we have right now. Things happen. People get fired. People start self-evaluating, questioning themselves.''

Lewis said no one on the Browns coaching staff or in management has spoken to him about his decision to retire.

"I wasn't really looking for that,'' Lewis said. "They've got bigger concerns around there than me retiring. And I hope they figure them out, because I want to finish the season off right.''

Among those concerns are finding a replacement for recently fired general manager George Kokinis, igniting an offense that has a combined zero touchdowns from its wide receivers and running backs, and calming a fan base that is livid over this sloppy, putrid Browns season -- with plenty of voices insisting that Mangini should be fired, sooner rather than later.

Lewis said that would be a mistake.

"He [Mangini] came in and changed a lot of things around,'' Lewis said. "He was different from what guys were used to. There was a lot of philosophical stuff. A more physical approach from training camp on than we had before. The veterans got together early and said, 'We want to win. He is the coach and let's buy in.' We knew things could be rough. But things got bad, one loss after another. We put in the hard work. You want results. But you also realize that things take time to jell.

"He inherited a lot. I think we should keep him, see if it works after the first year. We should stick with him. He is a guy you can go talk to. What people think of him is not the type of person he is -- he is a very smart coach. He teaches intelligence on the field, how to be smarter than your opponent. I think there is a reason for everything he does.''


It says a lot that Lewis still believes in Mangini.

But Lewis has long been a self-starter, a team player, a leader by example in his work habits. As a rookie in 2000, he was asked by Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome if he could run with the top backs in the Ravens' division (back then, the six-team AFC Central): Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis, Tennessee's Eddie George, Jackosnville's Fred Taylor and Cincinnati's Corey Dillon.

Lewis ran past that crowd and eventually to a rushing championship, when he piled up 2,066 yards in 2003, joining Eric Dickerson, Terrell Davis, Barry Sanders and O.J. Simpson as the only backs to top 2,000-yard plateau in a season. Lewis also had the best single-game performance of his career in 2003, a 295-yard performance against, ironically, Cleveland.

With 10,456 career yards rushing, Lewis is a legit Hall of Fame candidate.

Some believe Lewis is retiring out of frustration over losing, much like Sanders did from the Detroit Lions in 1999.

Newsome, a former tight end who spent his entire Hall of Fame career with the Browns, understands.

"When I decided to retire from the game, we had gone 4-12, and when you are not playing for playoffs and championships and Super Bowls, your whole drive can be taken away," Newsome said. "I've been where Jamal is. I'm sure he is frustrated. But he has always had a level of maturity about things. When he came here as a rookie, he ran with part of the group of veterans that included Rod Woodson and Ray Lewis. Rookies can't always crack that group. I have no idea what is really going on in Cleveland; I have been gone from there for 14 years. Whatever Jamal does will be good for him.''

Lewis owns a trucking business and an investment firm. He said he listened to his mother when she said football was not the end, just a stepping-stone.

Lewis arrived in Cleveland in 2007 -- the Browns finished 10-6, their best record since the franchise returned in 1999. But a follow-up 4-12 year cost head coach Romeo Crennell and general manager Phil Savage their jobs.

In with Mangini and Kokinis. A 1-7 start. Out with Kokinis.

Much of the Browns' disarray -- which has included season-long confusion and ineffective play at quarterback -- will be on national display when they host Baltimore on Nov. 16 in a Monday night game.

Lewis is hoping the first of his final eight NFL games provides the start of a Cleveland turnaround.

"The only way I would come back to play again is if a team gives me part ownership; a player/owner, that would be something that would get me in,'' Lewis said. "I know it's not going to happen that way, but that's a dream I have, NFL ownership. Our team is not 1-7 just because of the coaching. We can still have something good happen. We can still come out and build a better foundation for the Cleveland Browns.

"I'm going to fight, practice hard, keep fighting. This is not the result we wanted. We can do better.''