The Ray Rice story was the biggest in the NFL the past couple weeks and now the Baltimore Ravens running back will speak with the media on Thursday past 11 am for the first time since his suspension and it will be on ESPN and WatchESPN live for his press conference at training camp and things will be on SportsCenter as well from Ravens camp and the facility and John Harbaugh has come out to say Rice has behaved well since all this went down.
ESPN.com reports that Rice will answer questions for the first time since all of this broke and comes after he had a press conference last month to address the issues. Roger Goodell and the NFL have been ripped for how they have handled this and John Harbaugh said that Rice will speak from the heart about everything. The two game suspension was a terrible decision in the eyes all female fans and public opinion has shown that the NFL, the Ravens and Rice are blinded in this whole situation.
This is the last chance for Rice to get things right, as the first press conference he had did not take questions and it was very awkward the first time he was in front of the cameras. Rice has been ripped in the media and he was called "tone deaf" in his first presser and he did not apologize to his wife and did not look contrite at all. Rice's suspension has been ripped and so have the Ravens overall, as their PR department is treating this as not a big deal and obviously they are backing him up because he's their player.
Rice and the Ravens have been making themselves look like victims in this situation, talking about how much it will hurt without Rice and on and on. Rice's wife is the only victim here and she begged in front of her attacker to Goodell to give a short suspension and clearly they listened. Rice deserves his criticism and right now the Ravens PR has been a mess and now Rice needs to come out and make all this right and if he messes this up, this could be very bad. USA Today reports that Rice is the most hated athlete in the nation.
The Ravens and Rice have been playing themselves off as martyrs and that is a terrible look and the language they use in this press conference could help him turn things around. Rice deserves this criticism and so does the NFL, as the two sides have been terrible in their handling of this situation and now this is the last chance to make it right at least from a PR standpoint.
Check here for the ESPN coverage of the Ray Rice press conference.
