All Ray Rice wants is a chance to redeem himself. Maybe he already has started - just not in the way that he wants.
There have been four high-profile female hires among the professional sports ranks in the last year or so, starting with Becky Hammon earning an assistant coach's role with the Spurs.
Banged-Up Bills Could Have Most Interest In Ray Rice
Since then, the Cardinals hired Jen Welter as a preseason intern to work with linebackers, Nancy Lieberman has become an assistant with the NBA's Kings and this week, the Hornets hired Stephanie Ready to be their game analyst, becoming the first woman to hold that position full-time, ESPNW reported.
Browns Continue To Field Questions About Possible Ray Rice Tryout
The site surmised that those hires all came about out of a spark from a singular incident: The TMZ videos of Rice dealing with then-fiancée Janay Palmer
The first video of Rice dragging Palmer out of the elevator of an Atlantic City casino went public before Hammond's hiring, while the second of him punching her in the elevator went public after Hammond's hiring.
"If you look at society writ large, it often takes bad events to spark change," Liz Boardman, a senior partner at Korn Ferry, an executive search firm recently retained by the MLB to identify female and minority candidates, told ESPNW. "Otherwise we get complacent. And when things don't go well in sports, it shines a light on our society -- shows the inequities."
ESPNW added that Boardman said the Rice incident paved the way for the perception that more progress was required.
"Even though it may seem forced, it's necessary," she said. "What happens is that women who are in the right positions and have been working hard along the way capitalize on it."
Former NFL player Wade Davis, now a consultant with NFL teams, concurred with Boardman's statement, telling ESPNW, "I think we'd be fools not to think the Ray Rice issue has had an impact on these hirings."
What an amazing development to come out of Rice's incident. No offers to Rice from NFL teams, however, have followed.
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