Ray Rice may not have an NFL future, but he is not without fans.
With the Ravens hosting the Steelers on "Thursday Night Football," several fans wearing Ray Rice jerseys were spotted at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore before kickoff. Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports 1 asked a few of these apparent Rice supporters why they choose to wear his No. 27 jersey just days after he was indefinitely suspended from the NFL following the release of a video that shows him punching his then-fiancee and now wife in the face.
Here are the explanations offered by three Rice supporters who spoke with Garafolo on camera:
"I am making a statement. I don't believe in domestic violence. But I will say, any woman who can hit a man, a man shouldn't have to sit there and take the abuse. The abuse goes both ways."
"I'm not supporting what he did. I mean, I feel like there's players that did worse than he did and they're still playing. So I feel like what he was kicked out for wasn't right."
"He's an upstanding citizen here in Baltimore, of course. He's done a lot for the community. And the reality is he made a mistake, he admitted it. He owned up to it, both him and his wife. They were punished for it and he's doing everything and anything they asked him to do."
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These three fans of Rice were apparently not the only ones out in Baltimore on Thursday night.
The Ravens will be offering fans an opportunity to exchange unwanted Rice jerseys on Friday, Sept. 19 and Saturday, Sept. 20 at M&T Bank Stadium. The team terminated Rice's contract shortly after TMZ released the explicit video of domestic violence that occurred in February.
H/T Fox Sports