For the Ravens, there was only one choice for who would present the Lamar Hunt Trophy to the team after last Sunday’s AFC Championship Game win over the Patriots.

O.J. Brigance, a former Baltimore linebacker and the team’s current senior adviser on player development, uses a wheelchair as he battles amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“What can’t you say about O.J.?” safety Ed Reed told reporters. “O.J’s been our strength.”

Using a communication device that transmits his thoughts, the Ravens’ honorary captain had a message for the players.

“Your resiliency has outlasted your adversity,” Brigance said. “You are the AFC champions. You are my mighty men. With God, all things are possible.”

The entire locker room called out “Juuuiccce,” Brigance’s nickname, Reed gave him the game ball, and linebacker Ray Lewis lifted the trophy and pointed to his former teammate.

“You’re my greatest motivation,” Lewis said.

Lewis and Brigance, a onetime special teams ace, were on the 2000 Ravens team that won the Super Bowl. In 2007, Brigance was diagnosed with ALS and soon lost the use of his arms. Then he couldn’t walk. And then he lost the power of speech.

But Brigance, 43, has kept showing up for work every day and has never lost the ability to inspire.

“Our strength is made perfect in our greatest weakness,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said last week. “And here O. J. is, visibly in a weakened physical state, yet in an incredibly strong spiritual and intellectual place, and he shows that every day.

“He’s just a shining light in the building, and we all definitely are energized by that.”

Brigance also shines bright in the community, as the Brigance Brigade organization helps “equip, encourage and empower people living with ALS to live their lives.” It’s working hard to raise money to advance research.

Brigance is convinced that he will walk again, and said he thinks the Ravens are doing just as much for him, if not more, as he does for them.

“The truth of the matter is those men inspire me,” he told reporters. “They have helped give me a reason to get up out of the bed every morning. There is a biblical proverb that says, as iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another.

“We are making each other better men.”

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vtafur@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VicTafur