Jameel McClain has known Ray Rice since their college days, and he spent the last six years with him as a teammate on the Baltimore Ravens. He said the Ray Rice he knows is a “great guy” who is worthy of forgiveness.  Of course, he also is refusing to watch the tape of Rice in an Atlantic City elevator knocking his fiancée out.  “To be completely honest with you, I didn’t watch the video,” McClain, now a Giants linebacker, said on Wednesday. “I didn’t look at it. It’s not my place. It’s not my business. I’m not them. I’m not in their family. I wasn’t there. So I don’t pay attention to those things.  “As far as the guy that I know? And I’ve known Ray since college, so I know him to be a great guy. That’s what I know. That’s all that I can really go by.”  Many, many others disagree, of course, after seeing the horrific video of Rice’s knockout punch to his now-wife Janay, which was obtained by TMZ earlier this week. The video, of course, made NFL Commisioner Roger Goodell completely rethink the two-game suspension he levied on the Ravens running back. He is now facing an indefinite suspension, and the Ravens cut him, too.  McClain, though, insisted “It ain’t my place to try to judge what someone else did” and said his only thoughts were about “how it affected (Rice’s) family” and he said he was “just praying for Ray and Janay and hoping they overcome it like I know they will.”  Was he at least shocked by what he now knows is in the graphic video, where his friend hammered his wife with his left fist, sending her head into the wall of the elevator before her body limply dropped to the floor, unconscious? McClain wasn’t willing to pass judgment on that.  “You know what? I think everybody has their demons at some point,” McClain said. “It’s not my place to judge. And I always speak on that because I do things that I’m not proud of and a lot of people do things that they’re not proud of. We all have flaws. And I’m not condoning anything -- by any means am I condoning anything. But I know every man, woman, child, everybody is flawed. So I save on judgment because it’s not my place.”  At some point, though, some NFL players might have to pass a form of judgment on Rice, since so far Goodell has left the door open for an eventual NFL return. McClain said he believes in “forgiveness” but he couldn’t say for sure if Rice, after that video, would be welcomed back into every NFL locker room.  “Could he be welcomed back? That’s a good question,” McClain said. “Same question that I ask myself: Is the world able to forgive? And that’s really ultimately the question. Is forgiveness really something that’s out there for people. That’s the only question I ask myself in my head. Isn’t that what society is taught? I don’t get it because we’re all taught forgiveness. We’re all taught God accepts forgiveness.”  And what about McClain? Is he sure he could forgive his friend and former teammate?  “Do I know if I could forgive? I know I’m taught to forgive,” McClain said. “I know that’s with me, as Jameel McClain, myself, as a man. I know I am taught to forgive. I know that’s what I am taught. I can’t speak for what everyone else is taught.”  As for whether the video evidence will make it harder for Rice to find forgiveness, McClain said “I don’t know. Does it make it hard to forgive a murderer? How do we judge what someone should call forgiveness, or what crime is harsh enough that there will be no forgiveness for it? What do you consider too rough to forgive?”
McClain, who spent six years in Baltimore with Rice, hasn't seen the video of his former teammate knocking out his fiancee, but remains strongly in his corner.