Janay Rice appeared on the “Today” show with her mother Candy Palmer to finally open up about what her life is like after everyone in the world witnessed her being knocked out and dragged by her then-boyfriend (and now-husband), NFL baller, Ray Rice on Valentine’s Day of all days. “Having so much of your life made public and have it all be negative, that’s the hardest part–not having control of anything that has to do with you,” Janay said. “Hectic, to say the least…shocking,” she continued.
Shocking is right. Janay’s lifeless body being dragged by Ray Rice is an image that many of us will never forget. But with news flooding timelines that Ray Rice has been reinstated from his suspension and that multiple teams are courting the violent athlete, it seems that the NFL is having an easier time forgetting the violent offense than the rest of the world.
During Janay’s interview with Matt Lauer, we’re faced with eight minutes of uncomfortable admissions from Janay and her mother–those of which include that they don’t think it’s “fair” that Janay’s been unwillingly made the face of domestic violence and Janay wishes that the public would allow her husband’s redemption. “People forget people are human. Everybody makes mistakes. You would think we lived in a country full of people who have never made a mistake…” Janay said. Was Ray’s offense a mistake or a recurring episode that happened to be caught on tape? The world may never know.
Unfortunately, there’s more disheartening quotes from Janay and her mother in this interview. Here’s the most sadly shocking things Janay Rice admitted during her interview with Matt Lauer:
1. Why Did Janay Apologize After Ray Beat Her Unconscious?:
” …Obviously people took it as, you know, I’m taking light off of what Ray did. In no way. I was basically, not doing what I was told, but at the same time I didn’t think it was completely wrong for me to apologize, because at the end of the day I got arrested, too, so I did something wrong, too. Not taking any light off of what Ray did because I agree with everybody else. He was wrong.”
2. On Ray’s “That’s Not Me” Response To The Elevator Incident:
Initially when this tragic scenario went down, Ray Rice responded and said, “It just not right. It’s not right. It shouldn’t be tolerated. That’s something I stand by, and I have to pay for that. You know that’s not me.” Well, during her interview with Lauer, Janay admitted, “It’s a natural thing for a human to want to come out and say, ‘No that’s not me. That’s not true.’ It’s a battle that we just can’t win.”
This is how Janay started the interview. She had already set it up to be more moments where she took the blame and/or implicated herself as a responsible party in the tragedy as well. It goes downhill from here.
3. Janay Is Still Making Excuses, Even Though There Are None:
Lauer asked Janay about seeing the tape for the first time and Janay said, “We knew about it. We knew that it would happen, we didn’t know exactly when it would happen. There was no preparedness for that. When I saw that it was horrible. I can’t make excuses for anything, but we were highly intoxicated.”
So she knows there’s no excuse for what happened to her on Valentine’s Day night, but she continues to slip them into conversation…”we were highly intoxicated,” she says. But we all know that liquor is not an excuse to do whatever you want and then blame the liquor later. Intoxicated or not, Janay didn’t deserve to be handled in the way that she was on that elevator. We just wish she knew that.
4. Janay & Her Mother Are More Hurt About The Public Telling Janay’s Story Than They Are About Her Being Abused:
Janay’s mother, Candy Palmer said to Matt Lauer, “It’s been the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to go through in my life–to watch my daughter being trashed and to see what’s happened to her all over national television, everyone talking about her, making statements about her and they know nothing about her. What are we going to do? We can’t fight everybody,”
So she’s not hurt about her daughter being brutally beaten by the man she loves, she’s more hurt that her daughter’s had to deal with the public’s concern for Janay. That sounds like a mother who would encourage her daughter to stay with a man who’s abusing her. Now we can assume where Janay gets her loyalty to Rice from. Janay said, “I’m not going to let the public bring me back there.” Right, because it’s the public who laid hands on her in the first place. This is a very sad mentality to have around domestic abuse–blaming everyone else instead of allowing the aggressor to take responsibility.
5. Evidently Ray Rice Has Never Ever Put His Hands On Janay Before Because If He Did…:
“He knows what he would have to deal with, you know, if this was something. You know, I’m not going to sit there in silence and let something happen to me — and God forbid, in front of my child, just like, let it happen? There’s no way,” Janay teared up.
It seems like all Janay did was sit in silence and allow this to happen to her. We can’t speak on their relationship or their bond, but there should be a no toleration policy when it comes to violence in a relationship, especially if it happens for the world to see.
6. The Second Video That Was Released Shows Rice’s Lack Of Compassion After Janay Hit The Floor:
Janay’s mother admitted, “I was upset by that part and I told him so. You should have never left her there like that.”
And Janay said, “I asked him after I saw it and asked him why did you just leave me there like that? He said he was terrified, he was in such shock that just had just happened, he didn’t know how to function at that point.”
7. Janay Initially Lashed Out At The Media Following The Incident. Why?:
“That was the next morning after the second video,” Janay cries. “I was so angry, hurt–seeing the man that I love have everything ripped from up from under him made me angry, the support system that I thought we had with the Ravens, that made me angry, the fact that I knew we wouldn’t be here anymore, that made me angry. We had to pick up and move our child from what she’s used to. It hurt. I just had to get it off my chest.”
What do you think about Janay’s interview?
1. Why Did Janay Apologize After Ray Beat Her Unconscious?:
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