Earlier this week, we passed along Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley’s Twitter response to Ravens running back Ray Rice carrying a Terrible Towel off the field and wearing it on his head at the end of Sunday night’s game between the teams.
Woodley compared Rice to past players who have stomped, spat or otherwise used the towel for purposes that have run afoul of the Steelers and their fans. He told Rice that he had made a bad move and the whole thing seemed destined to be a storyline in the second meeting between the teams in Week 13. Rice responded to Woodley on Wednesday, but he didn’t throw any fuel on the fire.
Rice said he traded the gloves he wore during the game to a Steelers fan for the towel because he wanted to add it to a collection of memorabilia he’s started building to commemorate his career in the NFL. He said he got why Woodley and others would be upset by someone treating a towel with disrespect, but that Rice said that he has no such intent because of his respect for the Steelers and because he wants a memento of the Steelers-Ravens rivalry he’s been such a big part of in his career.
“I apologize to those who saw it as disrespectful. For me, I thought it was a pretty cool gesture, exchanging my gloves with a fan and walking out with it. Obviously, getting a victory there was cool and I leave it in the past. Their fans are great, the organization is great and the rivalry is always going to continue to be great,” Rice said, via Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun. “To have something in your basement to know what the rivalry is all about is pretty cool. I’ve been exchanging jerseys with guys. My basement is geting pretty colorful down there with other teams’ stuff. [Having the towel was] not maliciously, just more out of respect.”
That should pretty much be the end of this little kerfuffle, other than to say that Rice’s basement does sound like it houses a pretty cool collection.