Ray Rice is trying to do and say all the right things as he continues his climb back into the NFL. The former Ravens star opened up about a lot of things during a wide-ranging interview with the Baltimore Sun.
Rice — who admitted to contemplating suicide — believes he’ll get another shot in the NFL.
“I’m optimistic that I’ll get a second chance,” Rice said. “I don’t think this boils down to whether I can play football or not. Obviously I know that. I just think there’s so much more that comes with it. I know the PR side of it will be tough. I understand that. I just know that if a team that really truly genuinely looks at me and understood that this guy made a horrible mistake then they can structure a plan for me.”
Said Rice: “I don’t like to be singled out, I like to be part of the team, if they can understand that I’ll do anything to help the situation and go out and give them the best football I got, I think I’ll get a second chance.”
The 28-year-old Rice was reinstated in November when Judge Barbara S. Jones ruled that he did not mislead Commissioner Roger Goodell, and therefore, should not have been disciplined beyond his initial two-game suspension.
Rice believes he’ll convince teams that “he’s owned up to his mistakes.”
“I would let them know all the steps I’ve done to become a better person and not figure everything out like I was perfect,” Rice said. “I would tell them about my counseling. I would tell them about my wife. I can’t buy my wife, no matter what. I’ve known her since high school. There was no money that was going to appease her. If this was that bad of a situation, then my wife wouldn’t be with me and I know that and that would have crushed me more than losing football. I would just reassure them that the person that created this, that committed that horrible act of violence that’s not the person, that’s not who I am.”