Ray Rice is a free agent in the NFL and tells the world that he now understands “why some people will never forgive” him.
Rice spoke with ESPN’S Outside the Lines and expressed his regret for what he did after a surveillance video showed him about a year-and-a-half ago attacking his wife, Janay, in an elevator before dragging her on the ground off of it. The former Baltimore Ravens player was cut and is now embarking on a return to the NFL as a free agent. So far, none of the 31 teams have signed him up. The Inquisitr has written about rumors circulating that the Dallas Cowboys would sign him on, but none of that has materialized.
Ray Rice says, in part, in the interview that he doesn’t expect people to get past what he did in that elevator.
“If you have never seen what domestic violence looks like, and you look at my video, I can understand why some people will never forgive me.”
Rice said he wishes he could take it all back, acknowledging that domestic violence is a serious issue, saying that “there’s no room for it in society.” He says that after watching the video, it was a particularly low point for him. He now says that he wishes he would have helped Janay back up after striking her in the elevator.
“I did everything wrong at that moment. I was out of my mind not to help her up. To treat her like nothing was the worst thing I could have ever done.”
Ray Rice admitted that he considered suicide in the months following the video’s release.
“I actually felt what it felt like for people to feel like it wasn’t worth living. I felt like that at one point. I know what it felt like to not want to live anymore.”
In a TMZ report last December, Ray spoiled his wife with an extravagant birthday bash . Janay bragged that she had the “best husband in the world.”
It’s what his daughter thinks of him that makes the former NFL player very concerned.
“Over time I want to be able to rewrite the script to tell my daughter… y’ know, daddy made the worst decision of his life, but this is what I did going forward.”
The 2012 Super Bowl champion has been a public relations nightmare. He hopes that his comeback will be welcomed somehow despite the bad choices he’s made.
“I always preach, one or two bad decisions, your dream can become a nightmare. Well, I had to eat my own words. I truly lived a nightmare. I’m just really hopeful for a second chance.”
Ray Rice has been speaking out against domestic violence since he went into counseling.
[Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images]