The Baltimore Ravens will honor Josh Bynes as their Legend of the Game when they play the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Bynes announced his retirement from the NFL on Friday. Among those receiving thanks during the linebacker’s farewell press conference were Auburn University and former Alabama All-American Ozzie Newsome, who served as the Ravens’ general manager for most of Bynes’ time in Baltimore.

Auburn, Newsome and Bynes’ retirement intersected on Friday, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

“Josh Bynes is announcing his retirement as a Raven today,” Harbaugh said. “His whole family’s here. His beautiful family’s here with his amazing wife and kids. I know they’re walking around here right now. He has a couple of sons that will probably be looking at Michigan here in a couple of years. Ozzie was trying to recruit them for Alabama already. Josh said, ‘Absolutely not,’ because where did Josh go to school? Auburn. War Eagle.”

Bynes was the leading tackler for the Auburn team that posted an undefeated record and won the BCS national championship for the 2010 season.

“I’d just like to thank Auburn University first – War Eagle,” Bynes said during his retirement remarks. “… Just for giving me an opportunity — a kid out of Fort Lauderdale just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life then. And to take an opportunity to give me an opportunity to meet my wife, who also went to Auburn as well, so that’s been a huge thing. I appreciate Auburn for that.”

Bynes entered the NFL as undrafted rookie in 2011. He didn’t survive the roster cut between the preseason and the regular season, but that wasn’t the end of the relationship for Bynes and Baltimore.

“This is crazy,” Bynes said. “I don’t think I’ve told anybody this story. I had just interviewed for a job down in Fort Lauderdale as an academic advisor, and I still had on my suit and everything. Ozzie called me literally just as I walked in the door. Called me, I was like, ‘Hello?’ He was like, ‘It’s Ozzie, with the Ravens.’ I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ He was like, ‘Do you want to come back to be with the Ravens?’ I was like — I think I said, ‘You sure? I think I said that first.’ He was like, ‘Yes.’ I was like, ‘Uh, I just got done with a job interview.’ He was like, ‘You don’t have to do the workout or anything. Just come on. We’re on going to bring you back.’

“And I kid you not, I started crying, because — at the time, I was just 20, whatever it was, 21, 22, at the time, trying to figure out, ‘OK, what’s my next phase?’ Football is over at the time. And to go from that to, obviously, playing 12 years is insane. And I’ve got to give a thank you to Ozzie for that phone call. I appreciate you.”

Bynes played one game for the Ravens in 2011, the first of 138 regular-season and seven playoff games in his NFL career, even though he was released seven times. Bynes played 59 regular-season and five playoff games with Baltimore.

“To me, Josh is a person, player, man who epitomizes the opportunity that football represents – the true meritocracy we like to talk about in football,” Harbaugh said. “That no matter where you come from, no matter where you’ve been, your background, whatever it is, how heralded you are or you are not, how much you’re talked about, whatever it might be, the content of your character, your talent, your work ethic, your ability just to find a way to get the job done and produce in whatever the job may be, to me, that’s what Josh Bynes represents. An undrafted free agent — people probably weren’t betting on him to make the team even way back then. …

“Past the football stuff, which you have to do. You have to produce. But the locker room, the mentorship, the example that he sets for the guys by the type of a family man he is and the father and husband that he is. I think guys look at that, and it makes a difference. I know he’s been there for guys just to talk to them and make a difference in their lives. That’s what a Hall of Famer is to me. He’s that kind of a player that deserves that kind of recognition in terms of being — all the accolades that he’s accomplished as a football player — but a Hall of Famer in life and relationships. That’s the beauty of football to me is someone like that.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.