Ray Rice is the best player in Rutgers football history, a Super Bowl champion, and a two-time All-Pro, but he won't be remembered for anything he did as a Scarlet Knight or a Raven.
No, Rice will go down as a dividing line of NFL (and, to a lesser extent, college football) history. There was a time before video of Rice striking his then-fiance in an Atlantic City casino elevator, and a time after. This split can perhaps best by seen by Rice's own career-- he was first suspended two games by the NFL in the summer of 2014, when Adam Schefter famously asked if Roger Goodell was "lenient enough," and then effectively banished for life when TMZ released video of the incident that September. He was released by the Ravens and indefinitely suspended by the NFL that same day and hasn't played since.
Rice is not the last player who struck a woman to play in the NFL. Joe Mixon impressed scouts at Oklahoma's pro day earlier this week, undoubtedly securing an NFL paycheck with a 4.43 40-yard dash at 225 pounds. Still, the Rice Dividing Line is evident in Mixon's career. Bob Stoops admitted as much. "Two and a half years later, dismissal is really the only thing that's possible," he said in December. The NFL, unsure what to do of a player who violated its post-Ray Rice Ethos before he was under its jurisdiction, took the awkward half-measure of banning him from last week's Combine.
The world is different now, and Rice is walking, talking proof of it. Still only 30, his career is over.
As part of Urban Meyer's Real Life Wednesdays, Rice visited Columbus (his former head coach at Rutgers, Greg Schiano, is now the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator) to share his hard-learned lessons with the Ohio State team.
The clip below is a collection of 1-line thoughts from Rice, but instructive nonetheless. We'll be sure to update the video with Rice's full talk should Ohio State release it.
CRITICAL words for our players to hear & understand in this day and age. "We're all a moment away from our dreams or from losing it all" pic.twitter.com/Zk37rvszrI
— Urban Meyer (@OSUCoachMeyer) March 8, 2017