Ray Rice is trying to make amends with his football team.
The Baltimore Sun reported that the Baltimore Ravens' embattled running back has rededicated himself in the weight room and in his diet in hopes of erasing a subpar performance on the football field in 2013.
But is Rice also trying to repair his damaged personal reputation in the wake of his physical altercation with fiancée Janay Palmer in a casino, a video recording of which made it the offices of TMZ Sports?
According to the Sun, Rice has lost 15 pound during the offseason and is looking to shed five more pounds before the 2014 season begins in the fall. Rice is coming off his worst season as a professional, gaining just 660 yards for the Ravens in 2013.
Last month, TMZ Sports publicized a shocking video or Rice appearing to drag what looked like an unconscious Palmer out of an elevator. While he waits for his day in count on simple assault-domestic violence, he apparently is trying to make amends to the team for his embarrassing incident in the way he knows best.
"Ray's body composition has completely changed since the end of the season," Rice's trainer, Kyle Jakobe of Sweat Performance told the Sun. "He has lost 12 to 13 pounds, 12 to 13 bad pounds, and essentially replaced a lot of that body composition with lean muscle. You can see the difference in his face and his body. He has cut down his weight and you can see it in how he moves. He's added lean muscle.
"Outside of the eyeball test, Ray has looked explosive and is cutting on a dime. We haven't seen that since the third week of last season. Ray played last year at 10 to 16 pounds over where we like him. We usually try to send him into camp at 205 pounds, because that's where he plays his best football. Last year, he came back a little heavier. Ray was hurt and he played at a fraction of what he could normally play at."
Jakobe added that Rice changed his diet as well as his workout regimen in an attempt to regain his explosiveness.
"Ray knows he was too heavy last year and didn't feel like he was moving as well as the past," Jakobe said. That bothered him, and he's extremely motivated and determined. He just felt like he was too heavy and not as mobile as he was before. So he's working on it hard."
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Rice simply put on too much muscle mass last season and is shedding it to get better results in 2014.
Neither Harbaugh nor Jakobe mentioned the altercation with Palmer, and Rice did not comment for the story. So it is left to speculation as to how much motivation to atone for his off-the-field incident led to his weight loss to make himself a better player on the field.
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