ProDraftLeague.com CEO Mark Tadros said that free agent RB Ray Rice has been offered a $1M contract "to be a spokesman" for the fantasy football website, according to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore SUN. The deal "includes a $500,000 salary plus $500,000 in bonuses available," along with "media and promotional obligations, including writing a weekly fantasy football column and interviewing other NFL players." Tadros said, "We think he would be an awesome spokesman. We think he’s sincere and remorseful." He added that Rice would be required to "return the $500,000 and pay the site an additional $500,000 should he be involved in another domestic violence incident" (Baltimore SUN, 2/14). The SUN's Wilson reported Rice on Friday issued a statement in which he apologized for his domestic violence incident and "thanked fans and the Ravens, including owner Steve Bisciotti." Sources said that Rice, who since November has been eligible to sign with any NFL team, "plans to leave Maryland and move back to his home state of New York." Sources added that Rice "hasn't visited or worked out for an NFL team, but continues to train in hopes of landing another job in the NFL." An NFC team GM said, "It’s a league of second chances, but it’s still a tough sell for Ray. I don’t think Ray will get offered a lot of money. Despite everything, I still think he’ll get a shot. There may be some upside even though his production was starting to decline. It’s a crowded market for running backs." Former NFL GM Charley Casserly said, "I would be surprised if Ray doesn’t get a second chance" (Baltimore SUN, 2/14).
YEAR IN REVIEW: In Baltimore, Childs Walker noted Rice one year ago this past weekend "put himself in legal peril and decimated his carefully constructed reputation as a model citizen-athlete," but that was "only the beginning of a saga that unfolded over the better part of the past 12 months." The Ravens and the NFL "would see their own reputations threatened by sluggish, tone-deaf responses to Rice's assault." NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, "especially, would face widespread derision, with some critics deeming him no longer fit to lead the country's most powerful sports league." Meanwhile, people around the nation "would engage in a complex, sometimes uncomfortable discussion of attitudes toward domestic violence" (Baltimore SUN, 2/15).
