Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice spoke to Alabama’s football team after Thursday’s practice.
Rice is Baltimore’s second all-time leading rusher behind Jamal Lewis but is known more for a 2014 video obtained by TMZ showing him punching his fiancée, Janay Palmer, in an elevator and knocking her out. He was suspended and released by the Ravens later in 2014 and never played in the NFL again.
The three-time Pro Bowl pick and Palmer remained together, got married and have since had two children, and Rice travels the country speaking about domestic abuse.
“He’s obviously going to talk about how to treat the opposite sex and having the proper respect for other people,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said in a news conference that preceded Rice’s speech to his team.
“I think that’s important to relationships, and I think it’s important as a person to be able to do those things in a very respectful manner. I think a lot of players can relate to his circumstance, and it will be interesting to hear a guy who has had some issues but has turned a corner and is doing everything he can to help other people not have the same problem he had.