Today rolled out part of their interview with Janay Rice as promised. Last Friday, I recapped the whole mess so far, which was topped with Janay’s ESPN interview. Obviously, Janae decided to stay with Ray even after he knocked her unconscious in an elevator. Janay insisted that Ray was never violent before that fateful Valentine’s Day evening. It’s hard to believe those words when Ray clearly spit on her, which started the physical fight. Janay doesn’t see herself as a victim, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to help Ray get back on the field. I do feel terribly for their 2-year-old daughter, but Janay will leave the marriage only when she’s ready. It’s sad.
Matt Lauer visited Janay and Ray at their home. They put on a happy family show. Her parents were there too. Janay hustles with tears and smiles during this interview. I can’t get the video clips to stop autoplaying, but you can watch them here. There are some telling answers to Lauer’s questions:
On remaining silent: “That’s been the hardest part, is having so much of your life made public and have it all be negative. That’s the hardest part. Is not having control over anything that has to do with you. It’s a natural thing for a human to want to come out and say, ‘No, no. That’s not me,’ or, ‘No, that’s not true.’ But it’s like a battle that we just can’t win.”
On the footage release: “We knew that it was going to happen. We didn’t know exactly when it was going to happen. But there was no preparing us for that at all. When I saw that it was horrible you can’t make excuses for anything, but we were highly intoxicated. And in the moment you’re not thinking about, ‘Oh my god. I’m on camera in an elevator.’ So of course people are going to read into everything and pick at everything about the situation. We understand that.’”
Has she watched the second tape? “No. I refuse. I refuse. I’m not going to let the public bring me back there.”
Has there been any more physical abuse? “No. Not at all. Ray knows me. And there’s no way. 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.”
On the press conference: “I was ready to do anything that was going to help the situation. Help the way we looked in the media. Help his image. Help obviously his career. So, you know, they told us earlier that week we would do the press conference.”
Did the Ravens ask/tell her to apologize? “They suggested it. Yes. They basically gave us a general script.”
On the reaction to her apology: “That was frustrating for me, because 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.”
Why didn’t Ray publicly apologize to her? “I mean, in our mind, it’s obvious. He apologized to me more than once. Countless amounts of times. I’m sitting there next to him, so I wouldn’t be sitting there next to him if I wasn’t the first person to get an apology. There’s no way. But the whole thing was awkward. We were just doing what we had to do to get it over and done with.”
[From Today]
Janay chose not to ever watch the second video, which … fine. What’s troubling is how the video (to her) symbolizes the public dragging her down, not the abuse that occurred. Sort of how she blamed the media for “her horrible nightmare.” I feel like Janay’s been brainwashed since the whole elevator incident happened. The Ravens made her apologize, and she admits as much to Matt Lauer. Janay says it’s her choice to help get Ray back into a job, but all along, she’s been told that she’s at fault. She truly thinks she did something wrong.
Will this massive PR campaign work? ESPN says that at least four teams are looking to sign Rice. They’re probably waiting out the public reaction to these interviews.
Photos courtesy of NBC
