Ray Rice Willing to Donate Salary for Final Chance at NFL

Although NFL players often love to tell us that they’d play the game for free, they’re protected by the knowledge that that conundrum will never actually be put in front of them. In the unlikely event that former disgraced Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice catches on with another team, he may be compelled to put his money where his mouth is.

Rice has vowed to donate what would be his entire 2016 salary to various causes aimed at preventing domestic violence. “Me donating my salary is something that’ll be from the heart,” Rice told USA Today Sports. “I only want to play football so I can end it the right way for my kids and for the people that really believed in me. But I know there’s a lot of people affected by domestic violence, and every dollar helps.”

After footage emerged of him knocking out then-fiancé (and now wife) Janay in an elevator some two and a half years ago, Rice has essentially been a leper to the NFL and its franchises, with even the most desperate teams refusing to cast a line his way.

This is all despite countless efforts made by Rice both in the media and through his actions to express his remorse and desire to correct his public image.

If he were to sign with a team this late into the offseason, Rice’s minimum salary would be just south of a million dollars. With his last contract netting him $25 million for two years of production, money doesn’t seem to be an issue. But even the possibility of Rice catching on as a training camp body seems slim, and not only because of the bad PR.

When the world last saw him in pads and cleats, Rice plodded his way through an injury-ravaged season punctuated by a league-low 3.1 yards per carry.

Whether a team wants to give him a final shot or not, that kind of production, partnered with two seasons out of the game for a tailback quickly approaching the dreaded “three-oh,” might simply be too much a gamble to waste a roster spot on.