Cary Williams: Rice ‘Deserves Another Chance’

Cary Williams played with Ray Rice for four season in Baltimore. Spent time with him this offseason. Knows his wife, Janay. He says Rice’s actions inside that Atlantic City casino elevator back in February were “contrary to what the guy is as a person,” and believes he should be offered a second chance.

“Obviously Ray made a mistake. I know Ray as a person, I know Janay as a person. That’s not their characteristics. They don’t act like that. It’s a situation where two people made a mistake, and one person was physical in a situation and he regrets that,” said Williams. “I know he regrets it because I spent time with him this offseason and I know who he is as a man and a husband and as a teammate.

“I played with him for about four years and he never showed me that side. He’s been a great dad, a great teammate and I guess a great boyfriend at the time.

“We all make mistakes. We’re not perfect. That’s a situation that is sad. It hurts my heart that he has to go through that because I know he is regretting the situation and I know he is a changed man and if he could he would take those days back or that moment back.”

Rice was released by the Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the league after TMZ posted the video from inside the Revel Casino elevator which showed Rice striking Janay and knocking her unconscious.  Rice was originally handed a two-game suspension. The league claims that it had never saw the video from inside the elevator during its investigation.

“I think the order in which they handled that was done very poorly,” said Todd Herremans. “It was blatant for everybody to see, especially once they came back and made their corrections.  Just what they did off the bat. The power that the NFL, that the shield, has, and to say that they didn’t see the video or anything like that, I think is kind of weak on their part and hopefully this is something everyone can learn from and move forward to set better examples for the young kids and adults alike.”

Williams was asked if Rice deserves another opportunity to play in the NFL.

“No question he deserves another chance,” he said. “Everybody sitting in this circle isn’t perfect and I don’t expect you guys to do everything right and you don’t expect me to do everything right. I’m not the most perfect human being. And I think that’s the one thing America needs to understand: We’re all human and we all make mistakes. No one mistake is greater than the next mistake. No one person is greater than the next person because we are all at fault. We all have some kind of fault in our nature, we are all going to be human at times and we are going to make mistakes. I think he deserves another chance, I think there will be another team that’s going to give him that opportunity, now it’s going to be up to him whether he’s going to make the best of that opportunity.”