Ray Lewis officially picks a side in the Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady debate

For 13 years, Peyton Manning was the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. Manning will obviously go down in history as one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history but unfortunately, he played during the same time as Tom Brady, who typically gets the nod as the G.O.A.T. due to his seven Super Bowl championships.

Former Baltimore Ravens legend Ray Lewis said recently, however, that he considers Manning to be the G.O.A.T., even over Brady. Lewis appeared on STAT Sports and gave his take on the G.O.A.T. debate.

"I would say from a quarterback... from a student level of the game, he made me alter my game. He made me watch more film and that's what I call the greatest quarterback, to me, me and his battle. Brady, of course, rings, but when you talk about just walking out there and seeing a man knowing that whoo, here we go again, Peyton Manning was rough."

Ray Lewis calls Peyton Manning the G.O.A.T.

Manning spent 13 years in Indianapolis after the Colts spent the first overall pick on him in 1998. During that time, he threw for over 54,000 yards and led the Colts to two Super Bowl appearances, winning one. While Manning didn't finish his career in Indianapolis, there's no debating that he's the greatest Colts player of all time for all that he accomplished.

While Brady has the rings argument won handily, Manning was dominant in different parts of the game. He won four MVP awards during his Colts tenure and led some of the most successful offenses in NFL history. The only real shame is that he didn't win more than one Super Bowl ring while wearing the Colts uniform.

This praise coming from Lewis is pretty significant considering how dominant Lewis was during his tenure as well. The two squared off 11 times total during Manning's career (counting his Broncos years too) and Lewis' Ravens only got the better of Manning twice, both of which were Manning's first games against Baltimore. He went 9-0 against the Ravens from then on so Lewis knows how dangerous Manning truly was.