Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, now running for governor, showered NFL bad boy Ray Rice with praise — and even partied with the Super Bowl winner — in moves that could haunt him now that Rice has been fired by the Baltimore Ravens for punching his wife.
“My favorite is actually Ray Rice,” Brown told the Maryland Board of Public Works in early 2013 after the Ravens won the championship in 2012. “I like standing to Ray Rice. He’s a lot shorter than I am but he’s about three times wider,” added the Democrat.
@ltgovbrown @RayRice27 You should have been wearing it all along, lol Never doubt our #BaltimoreRavens @Ravens Nice pic
— Lisa Casey (@saleen804) February 7, 2013
To prove his dedication to Rice, Brown wore a Ravens jersey with Rice’s No. 27 on it and tweeted it out. Rice was dumped by the Ravens and indefinitely suspended from the NFL Monday after new video from TMZ showed he punched his then girlfriend in an Atlantic City hotel elevator in February. He had earlier received a two-game suspension after a related video showed him dragging her out of the elevator, apparently unconscious.
The NFL is cracking down on domestic violence and the Rice case has been front and center.
Brown is in a competitive election with Republican Larry Hogan, who is hammering taxes approved by Brown’s boss, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, himself eyeing a presidential bid. After the TMZ video surfaced Monday, Brown said that the Ravens had made the “right decision” to dump Rice.
Brown’s association with Rice could hurt his chances. In addition to tweeting out his picture in Rice’s jersey at the public works meeting, he also issued a press release in January 2013 crediting Rice for setting “an excellent example for our young people on and off the field.”
What’s more, pictures of Brown hanging out with Rice and guests at a party are being pushed around the internet.
All of Brown’s praise and association with Rice came well before the February incident in an Atlantic City hotel with his then finance Janay. They have since married. While Rice faced charges, she declined to testify against her husband and charges were reduced to court-supervised counseling.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
