Baltimore Ravens Honor Ray Rice in Pre-Game Tribute Amid Controversy

The Baltimore Ravens' choice to honor ex-team running back Ray Rice, who won a Super Bowl with them in February 2013, got different reactions from the team and football fans.

Rice, a big name of the team in late 2019 and early 2008 got into trouble with violence at home. This case caused his sports work to end sooner than it should have but he had already become famous in Baltimore city when this happened.

On Sunday, at The Bank, Rice and his family were honored by the fans. He got mostly good feedback from people who watched him play against the Dolphins team during a game they attended together on that day. The Baltimore Banner talked to many fans and found that most of them said Rice was a good player. They didn't mind the team honoring him last week.

The acceptance came almost ten years after the event that changed Rice's job and public view, something he has fairly worked on fixing since then. Rice has become a champion against violence at home. He talks openly about it and tries to use his experience to guide and teach others on the issue.

In the end, people had different reactions. Some fans said they forgive him for his past mistakes and recognize his effort to make things right. But there were a few (small group) who didn't agree with how much respect was given because of other problems in life that he has faced.

"To be a legend, you need to do something big in your life," Rice said before the game began on Sunday. To explain a bit, the Ravens were celebrating Rice as a "Legend of the Game." That's why he said what he did.

"That can be good or bad," Rice added. For me now starting a new year, I think it means the work we did. I know what I did on that soccer field. I've been doing this, and to have it here on the last day of the year is amazing. This is my best ever New Year's Eve I could be given. This is my big game before our championship," he said.

Rice started a six-year NFL job in 2008 that ended in 2013. He got let go by the Ravens then. He won the big football game and played in 92 games with Baltimore, starting 80 of them.

The running back is truly a great Ravens legend, no matter what you think. This comes from how well they played the game. Rice gained 9,214 yards from scrimmage in his short career by making contact with the ball 1799 times. He scored a total of 37 touchdowns for running and added another six points when he caught passes on plays that took him into the endzone area to score more hot dog eating goals named "touchdown".