Copyright TMZ
TMZSports.com Ray Lewis has no shortage of accolades to his name, but perhaps none more important than the Champion of Mentoring Award he was recently bestowed ... an honor he tells TMZ Sports was "one of the most rewarding things that I probably received." We spoke with Lewis after MENTOR, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing mentors to kids across the country, honored him at their 35th Anniversary Gala in mid-October, with the Hall of Famer telling us he was shocked when he initially got the call. Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media. "I think just that whole room, that whole aura around what does it mean to be recognized as a champion in the mentoring space, is what I live to do," Lewis said. "So it was one of the greatest honors, I think, I've received in a very, very long time." #52 also shared the stage with Bill Russell's widow, Jeannine, who accepted the Champion of Mentoring Award on behalf of her late husband. For Ray, the award took on extra meaning ... after the tragic passing of his son, Ray Lewis III, in 2023. "I've been speaking openly about my son's passing for the last two years, since he's been gone," Lewis said. "This was just another follow-up, and a way that I actually deal with it, losing a son, losing a child, you will never see life the same ever again." While the gala may have come and gone, the work is nowhere near done for Ray ... who has big plans with his foundation, Ray Of Hope, including something he's calling the Locker Room Initiative. TMZSports.com "We have to create those locker rooms, those ambassadors that you can call right later on down the road," Lewis said. "That'll be an app that comes up," he said. "I can't go and have the same impact in Pittsburgh, but then [Ben] Roethlisberger, Jerome Bettis can, right? People like that. You go to the next one, and you copy and paste that model to where you use influential capital, which we've not used influential capital in a very long time."
