Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has insisted that he won't change his leadership style following the retirement of Ray Lewis.
Lewis led the Ravens to the Super Bowl in the last of his 17 years with the franchise and was famous for his vocal support of the team both on and off the field.
However, while Flacco acknowledges that the Ravens have lost a natural leader in Lewis, he doesn't believe that he needs to adapt his notoriously calm style in order to make up for it.
"My leadership role, I don't think anybody is ever going to necessarily see it on the cameras or anything like that. So people may not think my leadership role has ever been anything or I will ever change. I'm going to continue doing what I do and do it the way that I do it and I think that's going to get us a long way," Flacco told ESPN.
"I'm not going to try to change who I am or change my role just because we lost a great leader and a great football player. I think we have a log of guys in the locker room and like I've said, I have always done certain things and I will continue to do those things.
"They're going to be behind the scenes, they're going to be me playing football and I'm not going to worry about trying to be in the spotlight and trying to have everybody see that I'm the leader of this team. But the bottom line is I am and I'm going to continue to be."
Flacco recently signed a new six-year contract with the Ravens worth $120.6m, making him the highest-paid player in NFL history.
