Ray Rice's wife claims Ravens urged her to apologize after Atlantic City assault that left her unconscious
By RYAN GORMAN
Beleaguered football player Ray Rice's wife said the Baltimore Ravens convinced her to apologize after her Super Bowl champion husband knocked her out in an Atlantic City elevator -- and also claimed to have never seen the footage.
Janay Palmer Rice tearfully told NBC's "Today" that she has no intention of ever seeing the footage, and also slammed the Baltimore Ravens, her husband's former team, for convincing her to take part in a widely-ridiculed public apology.
The battered woman also spoke of how she was angered by the video being released.
She said she only saw the first video and recalls being mortified by what it showed her.
"I saw the first one ... But there was no preparing us for that at all," said Janay Rice. "When I saw that it was horrible."
But she refused to watch the second.
"No. I refuse. I refuse," she insisted. "I'm not gonna let the public bring me back there."
When asked how her infamous husband explained standing over her unconscious body instead of trying to comfort her, Janay Rice said he was in disbelief.
"He said he was terrified," she said. "He was in such shock that this had just happened. He didn't know how to function at that point."
Janay Rice also admitted that she never would have taken part in the apology press conference had it not been for team officials urging to apologize.
The team prepared a general script for both her and Ray Rice to follow.
"We were just doing what we had to do get it over and done," she explained.
The Ravens even tweeted out a portion of her apology before quickly taking it down following a negative reaction from people around the country.
Janay Rice repeatedly responded "no" when asked if she would have endured the press conference and the scrutiny that followed had it not been at the team's suggestion.
The team eventually cut the star running back, voiding his $35 million contract, after the league suspended him indefinitely, a decision that also infuriated Janay Rice.
"I was so angry," she said. "I was hurt. Seeing them -- the man that I love have everything ripped up from under him.
"It made me angry. The support system that I thought we had in the Ravens, that made me angry," she continued. "The fact that I knew we wouldn't be here anymore made me angry."
The embattled football player's wife has also claimed NFL commissioner Roger Goodell lied about what he knew of the incident prior to the video being made public.
She insisted to NBC, in an interview excerpt released over the weekend, that the running back told Goodell the "honest truth" about the February assault.
"I can't say he's telling the truth ... I know for a fact that Ray told the honest truth that he's been telling from February," said Janay Rice.
Goodell initially suspended the former college star at Rutgers for only two games, setting off a firestorm that nearly cost the commissioner his job.
The indefinite suspension has since been overturned, but Ray Rice is a man without a team in a league with a dearth of talent at his position.
But the couple has far greater concerns, including how to explain the incident to their two-year-old daughter.
"I don't think I'll ever be prepared until that moment," said Janay Rice. "But we're going to be honest with her.
"We're gonna tell her what happened," she continued. "Let her know things like this are not okay. It's not somethin' that she should tolerate.
"You know, let her know that people make mistakes and it's how you learn from them."
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Ray Rice's wife claims NFL commish Goodell lied about his knowledge of assault
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