Janay Rice is telling her side of the story.
The wife of free agent NFL running back Ray Rice has stayed largely silent following the couple’s involvement in a domestic violence situation last spring, save for the press conference the two participated in with the support of the Baltimore Ravens.
At the time, Janay Rice apologized for her role in the altercation, despite the fact that disturbing video of the event showed her then-fiancé dragging her out of an elevator, unconscious.
In a new, long-form, first-person story for ESPN.com, Janay Rice chronicles the entire night in Atlantic City, and the subsequent meetings with Baltimore Ravens and NFL officials. Rice’s account of those meetings dispels prior reports that she asked the NFL to punish her husband “lightly.”
“I really didn’t think they would ask me any questions, but I was asked one,” Janay Rice wrote. “I was surprised I was asked anything at all. One of the NFL executives asked me how I felt about everything. And I broke down in tears. I could hardly get a word out. I just told him that I was ready for this to be over.”
Janay Rice wrote that she saw the first video outside of the elevator that was released, but has not — and does not intend to — seen the graphic video from within the elevator. She wrote about what she remembers from the event.
“We got into the elevator and what happened inside is still foggy to me. The only thing I know — and I can’t even say I ‘remember’ because I only know from what Ray has told me — is that I slapped him again and then he hit me. I remember nothing else from inside the elevator.”
On Friday, Ray Rice won his appeal of the indefinite suspension handed down to him by the NFL. He is available to play immediately.
Photo via Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports Images
