It's been one nightmare of a year for former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. He became public enemy number one in the country after ugly video footage leaked surrounding his assault on now wife Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City hotel elevator.
As Rice is currently unemployed and looking for a shot to play again, he has begun his mission to hit the media trail hard.
Rice recently sat down with the Baltimore Sun, explaining in a very emotional way about how difficult life has been for him over these past 12 months.
"The big picture of it all, being the person that I am, I really felt horrible," Rice said in a recent hourlong interview. "You almost want to punish yourself. I know I'm never going to win the battle of public opinion. Honestly, I almost felt like at one point that it wasn't worth living. I see why people commit suicide."
"It hurt that bad. I was low, real low. It hurt that bad because you worked your whole life to do all the right things and then you're the world's most hated person. It was really tough. My daughter, oh Lord, I grew up without a father, there's no way I could check out on my own family."
There's no question that Rice is being counseled in a very intelligent manner. The sympathy card is the only one he he has in his back pocket at the time.
As we've seen often in the NFL, it only takes one organization to decide to give the questionable figure a shot to play. Of all 32 teams, there's always usually one.
A few things working against Rice though is the fact that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also found himself in hot water over the incident, and most owners won't want to get involved in just a public relations nightmare.
At age 28, Rice plays a position in running back which is now a very devalued position, and is quite frankly a young man's game.
Even still, prior to the madness that has taken over his life, Rice put up a tremendous season in 2012 which saw him pile up 1,143 rushing yards and 10 total touchdowns, via Pro Football Reference.
Screenshot Courtesy of YouTube, agre44or