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Lyrify.me

Public Apology to Janay Palmer by Ray Rice Lyrics

Genre: misc | Year: 2014

I wrote some notes. I knew today was going to be another very difficult day for me and my family. But the first thing I wanted to talk about was, that night, my actions that night were inexcusable. That night-- let me just put it this way-- that night I just replay it over and over in my head. That's not me. My actions were inexcusable, and that's something I have to live with for the rest of my life.

And the pain that I'm talking about living with is waking up and-- my daughter is two years old now-- I have a little girl who's very smart, very intelligent, and one day she's gonna know the power of Google. And we have to explain that to her: what happened that night.

And I know that's not who I am as a man. That's not who my mom raised me to be. Anybody knows me and knows me, they know I was raised by a single parent; and that was my mother. And sitting here today and replay the things that my mom raised me to be. I let her down, I let my wife down, I let my daughter down, I let my wife's parents down, I let the whole Baltimore community down, and-- I got my teammates here supporting me-- I let my teammates down. I let so many people down because of 30 seconds of my life that I know I can't take back.

But speaking on that part, what I've done going forward, I'm a man who said I needed help. And one thing I realized is, man, I'm not afraid to ask for help. And just to touch on something last time, I didn't publicly apologize to my wife. And I realized that hit home with a lot of people. But there are many nights where me and my wife sleep together and we still have to deal with this. And her pain is my pain; my pain is her pain. But one thing I wanted to do today was apologize to my wife who I've known since high school. I've known her since a kid. I met her in high school and she's the same girl now, great mother, and she's a great wife, and she supports me throughout.

When the time is right, when the time is right-- and I say that because you have to fix yourself before you can go out and help others-- and when the time is right me and my wife want to go out there and help people, anybody, violence of any kind, especially man on woman, is just not right. It's not right, it shouldn't be tolerated, it's not right for society, no matter what. That's something I'll stand by and I have to pay for that. But me and my wife, when the time is right, we will go out there and help as many people as we can, to go out there and speak out against domestic violence. Because it's something that's just totally inexcusable. And I'm here today to tell you that I made the biggest mistake of my life. Me. 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 them things you go to and things just automatically get better. But what counseling has done for me is it’s allowed me to interact with my inner-self to let me know where I was weak in my life. Because honestly, scoring touchdowns and doing what I do as an NFL player, it is a very big job, but it's very small in terms of being a parent and being a fulfilled husband. Because, anybody knows the rule of a husband: if you go biblically, the husband is the head of a household. My job is to lead my family, my job is to lead my wife, my job is to lead in whatever I do. And if I’m not being the example, then my family crumbles.

And today, I know you guys' job is to report my highest highs and my lowest lows. But my lowest low: I made a huge mistake. And I want to own it. I want to say right here in front of my teammates that I made a huge mistake. These two games are going to hurt. These two games are going to hurt. Because when I didn't have nothing growing up, all I had was football, and just to have that skill taken away from me and I can’t be with you guys the first two weeks, it hurts. And I appreciate you guys' support.

And I also appreciate the fans of Baltimore who gave me that ovation. I just don't know what they expect sometimes, because I still got kids sometimes who wear 27 jerseys and I just want to tell them to please don't make the mistake that I did. I always talk about how one or two bad decisions, your dreams could become a nightmare. And I was truly living a nightmare.

But I'm on the way, and I'm doing the best I can to come out here every day, focused, with my teammates. And I just want to apologize once again to any woman who has been involved in any domestic-- or any kind of violence. My sincere apologies go out to you, and like I said, when the time is right, when I get myself completely ready to go out there and do the things I've been doing in the community, I will go out and help as many people as we can; that's myself and my wife.