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          Ray Rice on why he's not playing: 'It ain't because I'm a bad football player'

          • Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff WriterMar 20, 2017, 01:10 AM ET
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              Jamison Hensley is a reporter covering the Baltimore Ravens for ESPN. Jamison joined ESPN in 2011, covering the AFC North before focusing exclusively on the Ravens beginning in 2013. Jamison won the National Sports Media Association Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award in 2018, and he authored a book titled: Flying High: Stories of the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Ravens beat writer for the Baltimore Sun from 2000-2011.
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          Ray Rice reiterated Sunday that he's not giving up on playing football again even though he's been out of the NFL since 2013.

          "The reason why I'm not playing football, you do the dots," Rice said before Torrey Smith's charity basketball game in Baltimore. "It ain't because I'm a bad football player. That's just keeping it real. I'm never giving up and never giving in."

          Rice was suspended indefinitely by the NFL in September 2014 and was released by the Baltimore Ravens when a video surfaced of him punching his then-fiancee in an elevator. His suspension was later overturned by a neutral arbitrator.

          Last year, he acknowledged that his window for a return to the NFL was closing.

          "I can still play football," Rice said Sunday. "I'm never going to give up. You're never going to hear me say I gave up."

          Rice is a three-time Pro Bowl running back who totaled a Ravens record 9,214 yards from scrimmage. In his last season in the NFL, Rice didn't show much explosion behind a ragged offensive line, averaging a career-worst 3.1 yards per carry. Still, at 30, he's younger than Adrian Peterson, Frank Gore and Matt Forte.

          He previously said he wouldn't be discouraged if he never played again.

          "I got two beautiful kids, beautiful wife and family that I'm going to continue to take care of," Rice said.