GREEN BAY -- Baltimore running back Ray Rice used his Twitter account to apologize to Green Bay fans for disparaging comments he made about Lambeau Field following his team's 27-14 loss to the Packers on "Monday Night Football."
Rice, one of the better running backs in the league, suffered through his worst game of the season (54 rushing yards) and was stewing about the loss when asked about the historic venue. "To be honest with you, it was just Lambeau Field," he said. "I didn't see anything special. They put us in the middle of nowhere and it's not a real exciting place."
"Everything about this place is terrible, to be honest with you."
This afternoon, Rice apologized to fans via Twitter:
"As a man I would like to apologize the fans of green bay you can't judge a book by it's cover and for me to talk about your city was wrong"
Given his performance in the game and the final result, Rice's comments weren't shocking. Visiting players often rip the lack of nightlife around the Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton. In a recent Sports Illustrated poll of 296 players in the NFL, 13 percent of respondents listed Green Bay as the "NFL team they'd least like to play for."
The NFL's smallest city doesn't have a great nightclub scene. The weather can be brutally cold. And, for visitors, it can be a tough place to visit. Current Packers players, however, often favor the low-key atmosphere and figure that the top-notch facilities, tradition and history outweigh the negatives.
"I'd rather play here," defensive lineman Ryan Pickett told the Green Bay Press-Gazette after the SI poll was released. "I wish I'd played here my whole career. No kidding."
Host of “The Drew Olson Show,” which airs 1-3 p.m. weekdays on The Big 902. Sidekick on “The Mike Heller Show,” airing weekdays on The Big 920 and a statewide network including stations in Madison, Appleton and Wausau. Co-author of Bill Schroeder’s “If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers” on Triumph Books. Co-host of “Big 12 Sports Saturday,” which airs Saturdays during football season on WISN-12. Former senior editor at OnMilwaukee.com. Former reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
