Back in his heyday, Chad Johnson was the Cincinnati Bengals’ star wide receiver. During an NFL game against the Baltimore Ravens, he thought that it would be a good idea to blindside Raven’s linebacker Ray Lewis.

Lewis is regarded as one the most accomplished Baltimore Ravens linebackers. When Johnson tried to take his opponent by surprise, he clearly underestimated Lewis’ power. Evidently, Ray Lewis was built like a tank and hit like one too, because poor old Johnson was left on the ground, winded.

Chad Johnson didn’t mean to plow into Lewis

After getting pancaked, a teammate helped Johnson up and he confessed that he hit Ray Lewis ‘by accident’. Later on, Lewis admitted to Johnson that he never even saw him coming. Apparently, the blindside worked a little too well and fulfilled its objective. Ray Lewis was completely taken aback by Johnson’s kamikaze attack, but the wrong target ended up on the floor.

The coach scolded him for targeting one of the ‘big guys’, and Johnson confirmed that he hit Lewis. Staggering from the failed pile-drive, he said, “I thought I could hit him, I tried to blindside Ray, he ran me over”

Despite their on-field rivalry, Chad Johnson and Ray Lewis are really good friends away from it. So, when Lewis told him that he felt nothing from the hit, the Bengals star simply laughed it off. A large part of the Chad Johnson flattening, was due to the difference between their weights.

A 188 pound receiver trying to blindside a 245 pound linebacker, was never going to end well for the former. The good news is that both players were good sports about the whole scene. Since that incident, both Johnson and Lewis have retired from the game and have remained friends to this day.

The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver even recalled an incident where he almost picked a fight with Ray Lewis. This took place after a particularly heated game, but the two managed to calm down and patch things up.

He event told Bleacher Report that one time, he badly wanted to brawl with Lewis after an ugly “sandwich” hit. He chased after Lewis’ car, shirtless as the Baltimore Ravens star drove away from Baltimore’s stadium.

One of Johnson’s tweets read, “My era of football was the best, i f—ing love Ray, a decade of getting knocked down & getting right back up talking s—, those were fun times!!”