Here is what Rice said to me about Mixon on Friday:

“From everything I’ve read, he’s taken full responsibility. But taking responsibility doesn’t change what happened, or that it’s not okay to put your hands on a woman, no matter what. If there is one thing I would preach to the young man it would be, yes, you’ve taken responsibility, but you have to understand the position you’re in going forward, and that the process is just beginning. And you better understand that there are people who will never forgive you, no matter what you do or say.

“When I go around and speak at schools now, I tell them, yeah, you can be The Man for a moment, or The Man for a lifetime. Like I said, the process is just starting for Joe Mixon. He’s still a young man, and I hope he has the love and support around him that he’s gonna need as he does move forward with his life, and with his football career. I hope those people guide him in the right direction.

“But no matter what, he has to keep coming back to the same place: What happened is not okay, it will never be okay, that’s not the way to be a man. What I’ve had a chance to do over these last couple of years, understanding what went wrong in my life, I realized that things weren’t going as well in my life as I thought they were even when I was chasing my dreams of being a great football player.”

Ray Rice paused and said: “I hope (Mixon) can do what I’ve had to do, and peel back the layers of his own life. Maybe Bob Stoops can help him with that, understand things he might have seen when he was recruiting him. Everything I know is that (Mixon) is a talented football player, with NFL talent. But there’s a lot more for him than being the best player he can be. This is about doing something with the chance he’s been given and be the best man he can be.”

Rice has tried mightily to do that since that elevator in Atlantic City. He has spoken to players at UConn and Western Michigan and Rutgers, his alma mater. He has spoken at Georgia and Florida State and Alabama and recently was invited to speak at a Big 12 panel on abuse issues. And he has worked with high school kids in New Rochelle. And is affiliated with Boys and Girls Clubs.

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