The Baltimore Ravens will honor Ray Rice during their New Year’s Eve game against the Miami Dolphins, the latest instance of the team welcoming its former star running back nearly a decade after a video showed him assaulting his now-wife.

Since then, Rice has focused his work in counseling and speaking out against domestic violence. Rice has been a presence around the Ravens for years. Last season, he was honored on the field at M&T Bank Stadium along with teammates of the Super Bowl XLVII-winning team, marking the 10th anniversary of the championship season. He attended a team practice during training camp in August this year.

The Ravens are honoring Rice “for the player he was, and for the redemption he has worked towards,” according to an article published on the Ravens’ website Saturday.

The team has recognized a “legend,” someone who made significant on-field contributions to the Ravens organization, at every home game for years. Against the Colts, former linebacker Pernell McPhee was honored before the game.

Rice was a three-time Pro Bowler who picked up 9,214 career all-purpose yards, which ranks first in Ravens history. He played six seasons, during which he helped the team to five straight playoff appearances before his Ravens career ended after video showed him punching his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, in a casino in 2014. A charge of third-degree aggravated assault against Rice was dropped in 2015 after he completed the terms of his pretrial intervention program, which included paying a $125 fine and receiving anger management counseling.

“I knew it would be hard to forgive me, but the one thing I have been consistent with was that I was going to be better. I’m not going to be a victim of my past,” Rice said in the article published on the Ravens’ website. “My legacy won’t be domestic violence. My legacy will be what I became after.”

Speaking this year with WJZ-TV, a media partner of The Baltimore Banner, Rice said he’s undergone “intensive counseling.”

“I’ve had therapists that I continue to work with. When you’re healing from something – I’m talking about childhood now – when you’re healing from something, you need to put that pain somewhere,” he said, later adding that he had to lead his household starting at age 11.

On Feb. 15, 2014, Rice and Palmer were arrested following an altercation at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Rice followed Palmer into an elevator, where a video shown to The Associated Press by a law enforcement officer in September 2014 showed she spat on him. He then punched her in the face, and she was knocked out after she fell and hit her head on a railing. A charge of simple assault against Palmer was later dropped.

The video and Rice’s initial two-game suspension placed the NFL at the center of a national conversation about how it handled disciplining players accused of violence against women. It remains an ongoing conversation. Commissioner Roger Goodell said later that he “didn’t get it right” in a letter notifying NFL teams about lengthier punishments for domestic violence incidents. Goodell later suspended Rice indefinitely after the video surfaced. The decision was overturned, but Rice never played in the NFL again.

Rice now speaks to NFL and college teams about his experiences and what he’s learned. He has addressed Ravens rookies about the subject.

The Ravens, meanwhile, partnered with House of Ruth, one of the nation’s leading intimate partner violence centers. Their three-year partnership aimed to raise awareness among NFL teams about domestic violence. The Ravens have donated $2 million since 2014.

Rice married Palmer six weeks after the incident. The two are still married and have two children. He has been coaching in two youth football leagues and working in the community.

Following the assault, Rice spoke with mental health professionals, experts in the field and survivors of domestic violence, according to the article published by the Ravens. Two of the groups he worked with were Childhood Domestic Violence Association and A Call to Men.

In 2019, Rice launched an organization called Pipeline 2 Prosperity after visiting a group home and hearing the children were in a “pipeline to prison.” The nonprofit aims to help underprivileged children in Baltimore, where the family now lives, and in Rice’s hometown of New Rochelle, New York. It provides toys, sports equipment and peer-to-peer mentoring, among other resources.

In addition to the Super Bowl XLVII reunion in October 2022, Rice has in recent years made appearances in local sports media to talk about the Ravens, including as a weekly contributor on WJZ’s “Purple Connection.”