Yesterday before last night’s Monday Night Football broadcast NBC Sports Bob Costas had a chance to interview the Ravens Ray Rice and his former teammate and now Jets line Bart Scott and here is what they talked about:
COSTAS: To summarize (your personal story): your dad was killed in a drive-by shooting when you were just a year old; a cousin, 10 years older than you, a father figure, was killed by a drunk driver; your mother raised you and three siblings largely on her own. How has this shaped you?
RICE: Growing up, it was rough. Growing up, mom can only be mom. My mom has been the best parent that you can ever ask for growing up as a child because what she did for me was she planted a seed and the seed was to go out and be a man.
My cousin…was an interesting story because he was the first one in the family to say, ‘You know what, I’m going to go out and be something. I’m going to go out and dream, and I’m going to chase my dream.’ He was signed to a record label. And you know dreams shattered (when he was killed). He’s the closest thing that I had to being around somebody that was famous.
COSTAS: His Hip Hop handle was SUPE, an acronym for Spiritually Uplifting People Everywhere. You’ve got a tattoo.
RICE: Yeah. I got the tattoo the day he passed and a question mark. [shows tattoo]. 3-21-98. The question mark is for when I’m going to see him again. I don’t know when that date is. So that’s an untimed date that only God knows when I can see him again. But what I do know is that I’ve been blessed and I’m sure that he’s over there watching over me.
COSTAS: Were you able to help your mom out?
RICE: I was able to do a lot for my mom on my first contract. Obviously this is my contract year. Lord willing, I don’t know when or what the numbers will be but I do bet that if my performance continues to be what it is that I’ll be able to do what I always planned on doing and that’s tell my mom that she can retire. I’ll let that option be solely on her. And when I’m able to do that, one of my goals in life will be complete.
COSTAS: If someone says Ray Rice is a Momma’s Boy, you’re cool with that?
RICE: I’m very cool with it. I’ve got a tattoo on my other arm…it says only God understands. It has my mom’s name going down a cross. I firmly believe that me and mother understand that the next person closest to understanding my relationship with my mother is the man upstairs. That won’t change from now until it’s time to go because she’s the one who laid that foundation, that rock, down for the family.
Costas and Bart Scott –
COSTAS: Who talks more trash, you or Rex?
SCOTT: I think it’s a tie. I give the edge to him because he has a platform to talk more trash than me. He gets to talk trash every day when he does his press conference. I’ve kind of been laying low a little bit this year.
COSTAS: Your Web handle is Mad Backer. What are you mad about?
SCOTT: I’m mad about everything. I’m mad about not getting drafted, waiting for four years to get an opportunity to play, people never thinking that I’m quite good enough, people thinking that my success was because of the players I played with…That’s why I made the decision to go to New York, to prove that I could stand on my own.
SCOTT on if he came to New York to disprove perceptions that he was riding on the shoulders of his former teammates: Exactly. What greater stage than New York to prove that you can handle the light, the moment. If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. It’s the toughest place to play because they love you one day and they hate you the next.
COSTAS: You were lightly recruited out of high school. You wind up playing for the Salukis of SIU (Southern Illinois) Carbondale.
SCOTT: Sometimes I say I went to 13th Grade.
COSTAS: You’re undrafted. Is it true that your bonus was $500?
SCOTT: Yeah. That’s before taxes. The first check ever cashed from the NFL was a check-cashing joint right next to Security (Square) Mall here in Baltimore. It was $329 and it just covered my Sprint bill…remember like it was yesterday.
COSTAS: Does it help you that somewhere inside of you is the kid that was overlooked coming out of high school; went to a less than football powerhouse; undrafted; played special teams; had to wait;, overshadowed by other good players, maybe great players, on his own defense; is all that churning inside you?
SCOTT: Always. I never forget it. I never forget that the Ravens were the only team to come to my pro day, that the Chicago Bears were right there in Champaign, playing at that time, and they told the Ravens I wasn’t anything to look at. They didn’t even want to get them the tape. So every time I think about that, it burns inside. That’s what fuels me. That’s what makes the Mad Backer because every time I step on the football field I get the opportunity to prove I was right and they was wrong.
