Ray Rice Apologizes for Assaulting Wife: 'Biggest Mistake of My Life'

The Baltimore Ravens' Ray Rice publicly apologized Thursday for assaulting his wife in February, an action that got him suspended from two games once the NFL season starts.

"I'm here today to tell you that I made the biggest mistake of my life. Me," the 27-year-old running back said. "[My wife], she can do no wrong. She's an angel. We're in counseling. We've taken the necessary steps to move forward, and I say I'm in counseling because counseling is not one of the things you go to and things just automatically get better. Scoring touchdowns and doing what I do as an NFL player, it's a very big job but it's very small in terms of being a parent and being a fulfilled husband."

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Janay Rice reportedly attended the brief news conference at the Ravens practice facility on Thursday. The couple married in March and they have a 2-year-old daughter, Rayvyn.

This is the first public statement Rice has made since his arrest in February, after which he was charged with felony aggravated assault. He was accused of hitting his wife, who was then his fiance, and dragging her off an elevator at the Revel Casino and Hotel in Atlantic City. TMZ obtained a video of incident where Janay appeared to be unconscious.

Rice received a diversion on the assault charges that won’t require serving any time in jail and the charges could also possibly be taken off his record.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced last week that he was suspending Rice for the Ravens' first two regular season games against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh without pay, which amounts to more than a half million-dollar loss in pay. Goodell received criticism for the decision from many members of the media and the public who said the punishment wasn’t harsh enough, given the seriousness of the incident and resulting charges.

“I don’t have any control over what punishment was,” Rice said in response to Goodell’s decision. “I’m being punished on a daily basis.”

Rice, a three-time Pro Bowl running back, said on Thursday that he and Janay want to be advocates against domestic violence.

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“When the time is right, and I say that because you've got to fix yourself before you can go out there and help others, when the time is right, me and my wife, we want to go out there and help people with violence of any kind, especially man on woman,” Rice said. “It's just not right. It's not right, shouldn't be tolerated.”

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith also drew criticism for his remarks following the announcement of the Rice’s suspension. Smith himself was then suspended by ESPN for one week for saying what many construed as his belief that Janay Rice could have somehow prevented the incident in February. Smith has since issued his own apology and will return to his radio show and “First Take” on Aug. 6.