The Road To Redemption

"You have to create your second chance."-Ray Rice

On the most recent episode of my podcast, Unplugged with Brandon Steiner, I spoke with Super Bowl champion and New Rochelle native Ray Rice.

Ray Rice was born and raised in the inner city and eventually became an NFL star. A two-sport star athlete in high school, he found his way to Rutgers University and helped turned their football program into one of the best in the nation. From Rutgers he became a member of the Baltimore Ravens, and not to long after that a Super Bowl Champion. With many bumps along the way, Ray is trying to take the road to redemption to sway public opinion and prove one mistake does not define you. To help him get there he has returned to his roots of New Rochelle to help him once again become a champion, but this time a champion off the field.

The first step on the road to redemption is to own up to your mistakes, and turn those mistakes into something that could benefit others. For Ray it is teaching young men across the country about the detriments of domestic violence, as he hopes that they learn from his past mistakes.

The road to redemption is no shortcut, it is a long highway, and you must be fully prepared to follow it for a long time. Mistakes aren't easily forgotten in our society, and you cannot expect to be forgiven, but as Ray says, "You have to create your second chance."

There will sometimes be people to help you along the way, and sometimes there won't, but its up to you to forget about yourself and try to prevent others from making the same mistakes. You can either learn from your mistakes, or you could leave them behind you and never look back. The second option is the bend in the road that will throw you off track with no point of gaining control of the wheel again, while the first option is the fork in the road that will lead you to redemption.

In this episode we discuss: