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Janay Rice, the wife of the suspended running back Ray Rice, said on Tuesday that both of them regretted the incident that led to him punching her unconscious, and described the publication of a video of the tussle as a “horrible nightmare”.
Speaking for the first time since Ray Rice was cut by his team, the Baltimore Ravens, and handed an indefinite ban by the National Football League on Monday, Janay Rice said the media had exploited the incident for ratings while ruining her husband’s career.
The statement came amid questions about when the NFL first saw the Rice video, and whether the league made a concerted effort to view it. When the incident first came to light in February, Rice was suspended for two games, despite a police report that made clear the severity of the punch that floored his then fiancée.
“I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare,” said Janay Rice, in a response delivered via Instagram. “No one knows the pain that the media & unwanted options [sic] from the public has caused my family,” she said.
“To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret everyday is a horrible thing. To take something away from the man I love that he has worked his ass off for all his life just to gain ratings is a horrific [sic]. THIS IS OUR LIFE!” Rice said. “If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels.” She ended with a reference to Ravens fans, saying: “Ravens nation we love you!”
The 15 February incident was widely covered by the media after celebrity gossip site TMZ released a video from outside an elevator at Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The video showed Rice dragging his then fiancee, Janay Palmer, out of an elevator unconscious.
Rice was charged with felony assault, but New Jersey prosecutors approved Rice’s entry into a pretrial diversionary program rather than pursue charges. As a result of the first video, Rice was suspended for two games by the NFL and received support from the Ravens team, moves widely criticized.
In one recent example, the team on Monday deleted a tweet saying, “Janay Rice says she deeply regrets the role she played the night of the incident.”
On Monday, TMZ released a second video showing the incident from inside the elevator. That video shows Rice delivering a single knockout punch to Palmer, then dragging her from the elevator.
Some US sports outlets, such as NBC Sports blog Pro Football Talk, asked the league directly if it requested the video from the casino.
“Security for Atlantic City casinos is handled by the New Jersey state police,” the league said in a statement released to PFT. “Any videos related to an ongoing criminal investigation are held in the custody of the state police. As we said yesterday: we requested from law enforcement any and all information about the incident, including the video from inside the elevator. That video was not made available to us.”
A longer version of the same video, with audio and in color, was viewed by Associated Press journalists on Tuesday. The AP said the video showed the two shouting obscenities at each other in the elevator and Janay Palmer spitting in Ray Rice’s face before Ray Rice punches her.
The AP reported:
The higher-quality video shown to the AP shows Rice made no attempt to cover up the incident. After Palmer collapses, he drags her out of the elevator and is met by some hotel staff. One of them can be heard saying, “She’s drunk, right?” And then, “No cops”. But Rice didn’t respond.
The Ravens said it will accept exchanges for Rice’s jersey following his release – similar to the New England Patriots’ decision to exchange Aaron Hernandez jerseys after the tight end was charged with murder.
The Baltimore Ravens will offer an exchange for Ray Rice jerseys at stadium stores. Details to come.
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 9, 2014
The Rices further responded to media coverage on Tuesday, as both Ray and Janay Rice spoke to ESPN reporter Josina Anderson.
“When I was able to ask him how he was doing he said to me, ‘I have to be strong for my wife. She’s so strong we are in good spirits. We have a lot of people praying for us and we’ll continue to support each other.’ Then after that he just added, ‘I have to be there for Janay and my family right now and just work through this,’” Anderson said in a TV appearance in which she described her call with the Rices.
Anderson said she then spoke briefly with Janay Rice who said: “Look, I love my husband, I support him, and I want people to respect our privacy in this matter.”
On 31 July Rice said of the incident that it was “something I have to live with the rest of my life”.
He added: “I know that’s not who I am as a man. … I let so many people down because of 30 seconds of my life that I know I can’t take back.”
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