Julian Edelman Reveals ‘Gnarly’ Injury Ray Lewis Gave Him As Patriots Rookie

Julian Edelman was one of the New England Patriots’ few standouts in their woeful 2009 playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens. But that game was not a pleasant experience for the wide receiver.

Edelman, then a Patriots rookie, came out of that game not just with the sting of losing 33-14 at home in the postseason, but also with an injury to his rear end that lingered for weeks — the result of an unfortunate run-in with feared linebacker Ray Lewis.

The retired wideout shared the story last Friday during an appearance on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast.

“I caught a ball, and Ray hit me, and he kneed me in my butt,” Edelman recalled. “He hit me so hard that I had, like, internal bleeding. I had a crazy hematoma where I instantly had to get an IV. They had to check my vital systems. I couldn’t sit down for literally three weeks. I had full J-Lo butt on my right cheek. Literally like six times the size.”

The injury even made flying home for the offseason difficult.

“I had to go fly with a donut because it was the last game of the year and I wanted to go home,” Edelman said. “I couldn’t fly for like a week. … It was nuts. Gnarly.”

Sounds like it.

Edelman caught two touchdowns against Baltimore in New England’s wild-card round loss, foreshadowing his eventual standing as one of the most productive postseason pass-catchers in NFL history.