NFL teams
ESPN.com news services 8y

Ray Rice still hopeful that NFL team will sign him

NFL, Baltimore Ravens

Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice said Wednesday that he still hopes an NFL team will sign him and that he's training for that possibility.

"I'm still hopeful. It's never over until it's over," Rice told ESPNU's Quint Kessenich at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, where Rice is serving as a coach. "I'm not ready to give it up. My second chance might have taken a little longer than I expected. I still know I have a lot of game left. I'm not worried about that part of it."

Rice, 28, has been out of the NFL since he was released by the Ravens in September 2014 after a video emerged of him punching his then-fiancée Janay Palmer, who is now married to the three-time Pro Bowl player.

The Collegiate Bowl is for draft-eligible college players. In the week leading up to the game, the NFL Players Association offers an introduction to its role in the league and gives advice on the business side of the NFL. Current and former players, like Rice, are given a platform to educate young players based on their experiences.

Rice said he will be honest in talking with the players about his past.

"I want to be as real and as transparent with them as possible," Rice said. "I do want to take questions, but I also want to take the platform and let them understand everything that happened in my life, understand me as a person and to understand the severity of domestic violence. It's a zero-tolerance policy and there is no place for it in society.

"I want to let them understand that because, you know, because it really came down to decision-making. That was the worst decision I ever made. I want them to understand that."

Rice also said his life outside of football since being released in 2014 has been "humbling."

"It's safe to say that I went through a lot of counseling and therapy -- a total rehabilitation," he said. "I feel totally different now. I actually feel better now than when I was playing. I say that in all sincerity. With everything that went on, I learned a lot about life. I learned a lot about myself. And I learned where I want to fit in.

"I had everything in the game and I lost it all," Rice said. "I have everything to go forward with now, pin my ears back and give everything I got to the community and give everything I got to the game of football."

^ Back to Top ^