Ray Rice hasn’t played in an NFL game since 2013, but he’s staying in good shape. A video — posted to the Facebook page of BlueStreak Sports Training in Connecticut — shows the former running back going through a rather physically impressive workout routine.
It begs a simple question, which was posed by Mark W. Sanchez of The New York Post. Will this video do anything to help his NFL comeback?
Rice has insisted that he’ll play again and ESPN’s Adam Schefter has reported that there’s growing sense that Rice will one day return to play. So, it’s certainly reasonable to wonder.
At this point, it’s awfully hard to imagine Rice ever playing again. Even if we find a way to ignore the elephant in the room that is his domestic violence issue, Rice is a 29-year-old running back that hasn’t played in an NFL game in more than two seasons.
There’s usually not a huge market for those players.
Then, of course, there is the matter of Rice’s highly public domestic violence case.
In a way, it almost feels strange that Rice hasn’t played since that fateful elevator video was released. Make no mistake, Rice is not an innocent victim who deserves pity. But the fact is that other players like Greg Hardy and MLB’s Aroldis Chapman have played after far worse domestic violence incidents. Rice, unlike those players, has actually shown proper contrition.
Now, it’s completely fair if you’re a person who believes that domestic violence should disqualify an athlete from ever playing again. But the fact remains that to this point, that hasn’t happened, and players just as (if not more guilty) than Rice have played. The on field skill of the player has more to do with the stance (or lack thereof) regarding his off field issue than anything else.
That’s certainly unfortunate but really, that’s what this issue circles back to. Rice hasn’t played in more than two years and hasn’t played well for even longer. A team would be taking an enormous off field risk by signing him that wouldn’t seem to offer much of an on field payoff.
It just wouldn’t make any sense for any NFL team to sign Rice, even if he is a beast a gym.