Cops getting fit with Ray Lewis

Ray Lewis leans over Dennis Rafferty (left), their faces inches apart.  Ray yells: "Focus. Focus. Focus."

Rafferty's face winces in pain. He's doing situps, twisting his upper body as it rises, his feet held by Sabrina Tapp-Harper.

The Ravens star linebacker is in his face, screaming words of encouragement, as if this were Sunday and he's motivating players to crush the opposing team.

"Finish! Finish! Finish!

Finaly over, laughs as he helps the large man to his feet. "That's what I'm talking about," Ray says.

Rafferty gives a high-five to Sabrina and looks like he's going to collapse.

"They're killing me," he says, wiping his forehead.

It's Tuesday evening and Ray Lewis and his team of trainers are in a Baltimore police gym at the training academy on West Northern Parkway in Park Heights, helping city cops get fit. Several months ago, Ray approached police and asked to help with something, and free work-out sessions on Tuesdays is what they came up with.

Rafferty, a 21-year veteran, is a former homicide detective who now works at the training center helping new recruits become cops. Four years ago, doctors diagnosed him with leukemia, and he battled through treatment and is now in full remission. Now he wants to lose 140 pounds.

The workout session done, leaving even Ray with a sweaty shirt, Baltimore's football icon handed Dennis an award for consistency and told him, "Forget everything else. the only thing that follows work is results. And that's what I tell Dennis every step of the way."

About a dozen cops participated in Tuesday's session and Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III watched from the sidelines, joking and challenging his public affairs team to join him next week on the mats. He even took out his Blackberry and assured Agent Donny Moses that his schedule was clear for next Tuesday.

The commissioner said Ray's sessions "gives back to the whole city. ... We're grateful for his community commitment. These are things that we teach in the police academy, but we get caught up in the daily crime fight and in our lives and it's not something that we continue."

Lewis treated the workout session like a football training drill, minus, of course, the hard hitting.

"Speed it up!" he yelled.

"Up one, Up two, Up three ..."

"That's work right there. That's work right there. We just got better right now."

"No pain, no gain. No pain, no gain." "Mind body spirit. Mind body spirit."

"That's somebody who wants some. That's someobody who tasted some."



(baltimoresun.com)