Does Ray Rice Deserve A Second Chance? – blogged by @LoveRubyWoo

A good deal of time has passed since the days when Ray Rice was a household name. No, I’m not talking about the days of him posting 1,000+ yard seasons and being praised as one of the league’s best running backs…I’m talking about the days following the release of the casino surveillance video that changed Rice’s entire life and made him the poster child for domestic violence. After sh*t hit the fan last year, Rice stayed out of the public eye. Partially because he had to – he was suspended indefinitely by the NFL – and partially because he did not want to draw any more attention to him and his family. Now, almost a year after the whole scandal came and went, Rice is trying to make a comeback with his career. With football season right around the corner, he is hoping that one of the 32 NFL teams might go out on a limb and give him a second chance. 

In an interview with ESPN’s Jemele Hill, Rice talks about wanting another shot at playing in the NFL and a chance to “hang them up the right way”. Calling it the “worst decision of his life”, he reflects on his actions that fateful night back in February 2014 and how it changed his entire life:

“I always preach one or two bad decisions, and your dream could become a nightmare. Well, I had to eat my own words. I truly lived a nightmare. There is no set in stone whether you’re going to get a second chance or not. I have to set my hope and faith and everything else that I’m doing in my life, I’m just really hopeful for a second chance.”

Rice is well aware that the public’s opinion against him is still very strong, and it’s probably the main reason why he has not been picked up by any teams yet. If a team picks up someone that the public strongly dislikes, they lose fans. And if they lose fans, they lose money. 

“We do live in a society where public opinion matters, and I totally respect that,” Rice said. “Domestic violence is real. It happens every 12 seconds as we speak…I think that that issue alone with me in my situation, having the video — that puts a lot in perspective. That vivid memory, obviously, that was the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

“I can understand some people probably never will forgive my actions,” he continued. “But I think that every step that I took going forward right now — over time, I want to be able to rewrite the script, to tell my daughter that daddy made the worst decision of his life, but this is what I did going forward.”

Rice also reflects on his experiences over this past year and insists that he is now a changed man.

“I treated this year, for me being out, as an injury year except for it wasn’t physical — it was mental. It was everything about rehabilitating myself to be the best husband, father, and go out there and share my story. I’m not afraid to say right now that I feel like I’m a rehabilitated man. I took this year as an injury mentally. Mentally, I just went through a lot.”

In the past, other athletes have committed crimes that were just as bad or even worse than what Ray Rice did. For many of these athletes, after some time had passed and some great plays were made, all was forgiven and the players returned to glory as if they had never done anything wrong. While I don’t condone what Rice did in any way, shape, or form, I also recognize that the NFL used him as a scapegoat. Without a doubt, many other players have done the same thing Rice did, but what made Rice’s case different was that the whole world witnessed it. The public outcry was strong and the NFL wanted to make an example of him to prove to people that they do not tolerate domestic violence. In a way, Rice bore the punishment for all domestic violence offenders in the league.

While the NFL’s punishment of Rice is technically over, as he won his appeal last November and was reinstated, the public’s punishment of him is still going strong and seems to be enough to cause teams to stay away for the time being. Some people have forgiven him, while others are just as angry at him as they were a year ago. There’s a slim chance that Rice will get picked up before the season starts, but if he does, it won’t be an easy pill for the fans of that team to swallow. 

So what do you think, do you believe Ray Rice is really a changed man? And if he is, should people forgive him and give him a chance to “hang them up the right way”?