Ray Rice hopes an NFL team can look past his ‘one bad night’

Ray Rice wants to play football again, and he may have that opportunity now that his indefinite suspension for violating the NFL's personal-conduct policy has been lifted.

But in an interview that ran Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show, Rice said he knows that teams are going to have to first look past what he described as "one bad night."

"They would have to be willing to, you know, look deeper into who I am and realize that me and my wife had one bad night, and I took full responsibility for it," Rice said, standing next to his wife, Janay, and her parents, Candy and Joe Palmer. "And one thing about my punishment and everything going along with anything that happened is that I've accepted it. I went fully forward with it. I never complained, or I never did anything like that. I took full responsibility for everything that I did, and the only thing I can hope for and wish for is a second chance."

Of course, we know what night he's talking about. We've seen the video of the then-Baltimore Ravens star knocking out Janay and dragging her out of a casino elevator back in February.

And then there was the controversial news conference the two of them had soon after the news broke this summer, with Rice apologizing to a lot of people but not to his wife specifically. That also came under great scrutiny and garnered much criticism.

"The reason why that press conference was the way it was, was because we were still under legal situations. So there wasn't much that could be said, but I'll be honest, we were nervous, I was nervous, and that was the first time we were available to speak. And I made a horrendous mistake not apologizing to my wife," Rice said on "Today."

Janay said in an interview that aired Monday on the program that they were given a "general script" by the Ravens for that news conference. Rice seemed to echo that statement on Tuesday.

"We were given what to speak about," he said. "It wasn't truly coming from us, if you can understand, but I made that clear in my last time I was able to speak that my wife is an angel. She can do no wrong. I take full responsibility for my actions."

Rice added that his wife is far more important to him than ever playing in the NFL again.

"The one thing I want people to understand is that she sacrificed her well-being for me," he said. "And now the role's a little bit reversed. I would sacrifice my well-being for her ...

" If I never play football again, I'll be honest with you, I would adapt into life and I would sacrifice more so she can have a better future."

Janay added: "I know he wants to play football, but I know regardless he'll always support me in anything that I want to do. So God forbid he doesn't play football again, then I'll step in and, you know, maybe I'll be a provider."

Twitter: @chewkiii