Raymell Mourice Rice, who is also known as Ray Rice, is a former American football running back who played his entire professional career with the Baltimore (Maryland) Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). Before joining the NFL in 2008, he played college football at Rutgers University. Rice also won a Super Bowl championship with the Ravens at the end of the 2012 NFL Season.
Ray Rice was born on January 22, 1987, in New Rochelle, New York, to Janet Rice and Calvin Reed. Rice never knew his father, who was killed in a drive-by shooting when Rice was a year old in 1988. Rice grew close to a cousin, Myshaun Rice-Nichols, who was killed by a drunk driver when Rice was ten.
In 2001, Rice attended New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York, where he was the running back for the football team. After graduating from high school, Rice attended Rutgers University, where he played for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team from 2005 to 2007. During his time there, Rice set rushing records for the team and was a finalist for the Maxwell Award and Heisman Trophy. Rice also won two bowl games with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, the Texas Bowl and the International Bowl, where he was MVP in both games. Twenty-one-year-old Rice left Rutgers to enter the 2008 NFL draft.
Rice was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the second round (55th overall) of the 2008 NFL Draft. He signed a four-year deal with the Ravens that was worth $2.8 million plus a $1.1 million signing bonus. During his rookie season, Rice started in week one of the 2008 NFL season against the Cincinnati (Ohio) Bengals. Rice’s best game of his rookie season came in week nine against the Cleveland Browns when he filled in for injured running back Willis McGahee. Rice ran for 156 yards on 21 carries. He finished his rookie season with 546 rushing yards on 107 carries and had 273 receiving yards on 33 receptions.
Rice’s best season with the Ravens came in 2012. He had agreed to a five-year, $35 million deal with the Ravens before the 2012 NFL season began. Later that season, he helped the Ravens win a Super Bowl championship when they defeated the San Francisco (California) 49ers in Super Bowl 47.
On February 15, 2014, Rice and his then-fiancée (now wife) Janay Palmer were arrested and charged with assault after a physical altercation at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Both Rice and Palmer were both intoxicated during the incident, and each was accused of striking the other. On March 27, 2014, a grand jury indicted Rice on third-degree aggravated assault with a possible jail sentence of three to five years and a fine of up to $15,000. Despite the indictment, Palmer married Rice the next day, on March 28, 2014. On July 24, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice for the first two games of the 2014 NFL season. The criminal charges were later dropped after Rice agreed to undergo court-supervised counseling.
Rice was released by the Ravens on September 8, 2014, after the release to the public of the elevator video of the incident. The video showed Rice knocking Palmer to the floor of the elevator and then attempting to pull her out of it. The released video put pressure on the NFL to inflict additional punishment on Rice. On November 28, 2014, however, Rice won his appeal to be reinstated in the NFL. A lawsuit Rice filed against the Ravens for suspending him was also settled out of court on January 15, 2015. Despite these legal victories, Rice was not picked up by any other NFL team and hasn’t played in the league since 2013.
