Ray Rice’s NFL career may have ended on September 8, 2014, when the tape of him punching his wife was made public, but Rice isn’t willing to accept that it’s over.
Rice told ESPN he would still like to play and thinks he can still contribute to an NFL team.
“I can still play football,” Rice said. “I’m never going to give up. You’re never going to hear me say I gave up.”
The 30-year-old Rice had a terrible season the last time he played, in 2013. So a lot of NFL teams may doubt that he can still play football. He insists, however, that he could still help an NFL team.
“The reason why I’m not playing football, you do the dots,” Rice said. “It ain’t because I’m a bad football player. That’s just keeping it real. I’m never giving up and never giving in.”
If an NFL team were willing to believe that Rice could help on the field while not giving the franchise a public relations headache, that team likely already would have signed Rice. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet after three full seasons out of the league indicates that it’s not going to happen, even if Rice still thinks it could.