New Rochelle native and Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice held a press conference Thursday regarding the domestic violence incident with his then-fiancé Janay Palmer to apologize for his actions.
As we wrote in July, Rice was charged in February with third-degree aggravated assault for allegedly beating his wife unconscious in an Atlantic City elevator. A security video surfaced online showing Rice dragging an unconscious, rag-doll-like Palmer out of the elevator. He pleaded not guilty and opted to go into a pretrial intervention program in May hoping to avoid a trial. Despite the alleged beating apparently caught on camera, the couple has since married.
This press conference is the first since the announcement of his two-game suspension in July. Although Rice declined to speak about the actual events of that night, he claimed that it was a “one-time incident.” His focus was on apologizing to his wife and their family.
“There are many nights that me and my wife sleep together and we still have to deal with this,” Rice said. “And her pain is my pain, my pain is her pain, the one thing I wanted to do today is, you know, apologize to my wife, who I’ve known since high school. I’ve known her since a kid. I met her in high school and she’s the same girl now, great mother, and she’s a great wife, and she supports me throughout.”
Rice said he was concerned about the effect news of the beating would have on his daughter, who is currently two years old. Rice said his fear is that his daughter will one day be exposed to the press coverage of the incident online and he will have to somehow explain to her what happened that night.
Rice appeared more composed than his appearance in May, where he made several poor word choices while fumbling his way though notes. He was very clear about his intentions going forward even going as far as expressing a desire to become a domestic violence ambassador.
“I own my actions,” he said. “I just don’t want to keep reliving the incident. It doesn’t bring any good to me. I’m just trying to move forward from it. I don’t condone it. I take full responsibility for my actions. What happened that night is something that I’m going to pay for the rest of my life.”
