What Is The Story Behind Ray Lewis’ Squirrel Dance & How Did It Get Famous?

Ray Lewis has been electrifying M&T Bank Stadium crowds for 17 years with a variety of maneuvers, including a slide to the left, a slide to the right, a thigh wiggle, a pelvic thrust, a chest puff, and a scream.

What Is The Story Behind Ray Lewis’ Squirrel Dance & How Did It Get Famous?

When you combine everything, you get the signature “squirrel” dance of the Baltimore Ravens linebacker.

Following the Ravens’ 24-9 AFC wild-card playoff victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Lewis revealed the beginnings of the renowned pre-game routines he has performed for the last time in front of the home crowd.

Through a remarkable career filled with seven All-Pro choices, two Defensive Player of the Year honors, two Super Bowl rings, and eventual induction into the Football Hall of Fame, the former Ravens standout amassed an enormous amount of on-field experiences.

However, if you ask members of a specific generation, it’s difficult to find a more iconic picture of Lewis than him twirling back and forth and then shouting into the atmosphere before a game.

Since several of Ray-Ray’s footballing pupils have imitated his famous entrance dance innumerable times, you are surely familiar with it.

There was purpose behind the “Squirrel Dance”. Instead, it was a well considered move, the origins of which may be traced to one of Lewis’s closest boyhood pals.

This is the tale of the dance that revolutionized the sports industry. Lewis’s childhood buddy from his birthplace of Barlow, Florida, Kirby Lee, came up with the dance.

“It started one time, they got ready to introduce the defense, and they were going to introduce us together,” Lewis, who is retiring after this season, said during the post-game press conference. “This guy in my hometown, Kirby Lee, would always do this dance, and the dance was called the ‘squirrel’, and I told him I was gonna do that dance one day, and he was like, ‘You’re not gonna do it,’ and I was like, ‘I’m gonna do it.’

“So one day they were introducing the defense, and I came out and did it and, of course, the crowd went crazy. After that they were like, ‘We need to see the dance again.’ So after that it just kept going. Then I started adding music to it and movie clips to it. It was a good time.”

It’s been that way for so long, and we’ve enjoyed watching it so much, that NFL Sundays just won’t be the same anymore without Lewis doing the “squirrel.”

What is the name of the dance Ray Lewis dances?

At Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, Ray Lewis performed the “Squirrel Dance” as the final Hall of Famer to be presented.

Why is it called the squirrel dance?

“This dance was a childhood habit of mine from my boyhood buddy Kirby Lee, who was in the military, in my hometown. Because of the squirrel’s movement, we called the dance “The Squirrel.” I was Kirby’s biggest fan.

Who created the squirrel dance?

Sunday was a contemplative day in part. So it only sense that Ray Lewis would explain how the iconic “Squirrel Dance” came to be after performing it twice, for the very last time. “I’m going to do that dance,” I informed him.

 

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