Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice is eligible to play in the NFL once again, and he believes he should have the opportunity to do so.
Rice, suspended in the wake of an assault on his then-fiance Janay Palmer, is seeking a new job after winning reinstatement to the NFL last week. Both he and Janay Palmer Rice have spoken to the "Today" show for a series of interviews illustrating their side of their story, and Rice is using his podium as a de facto job interview.
Any owner who signed Rice would have to be "willing to look deeper into who I am and realize that me and my wife had one bad night," he said. Rice acknowledged his role and his shortcomings, and said he's learned from the last few months.
"I took full responsibility," he said. "And one thing about my punishment and everything going along with anything that happened is that I've accepted it ... The only thing I can hope for and wish for is a second chance."
Rice said that his relationship with his wife had never before, and never since, lapsed into physical violence. "We've had arguments, but when you talk about abuse, that's something that we know that we'd never cross that path," he said. "But then did we say things to each other that we want to take back at times? Yeah, we crossed that line before. But it never got to an altercation where it went that far. That was just very uncharacteristic of myself."
The question for Rice from a pure football perspective is whether he can even contribute enough to be a valuable signing. In 2013, he ran for 660 yards, less than half of his peak just two years before, and scored only four touchdowns. He will bring certain public relations headaches to whichever organization might sign him; the issue for prospective teams is whether picking up a backup running back would be worth bucking the negative reaction sure to follow in his wake.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.
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from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1yIsAYg
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