--- title: Ray Rice: Twitter Reacts to Janay's Defense of Her Husband description: The abused wife of disgraced NFL player Ray Rice stunned observers with a ferocious defense of her husband Tuesday canonical: https://time.com/3311509/ray-rice-janay-ravens-defense/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-09T18:47:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:57.059Z og:title: 13 Thoughtful Tweets About Janay Rice's Instagram Statement og:description: The abused wife of disgraced NFL player Ray Rice stunned observers with a ferocious defense of her husband Tuesday og:url: https://time.com/3311509/ray-rice-janay-ravens-defense/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 13 Thoughtful Tweets About Janay Rice's Instagram Statement twitter:description: The abused wife of disgraced NFL player Ray Rice stunned observers with a ferocious defense of her husband Tuesday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 13 Thoughtful Tweets About Janay Rice's Instagram Statement  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Sep 9, 2014 6:47 PM UTC  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Sep 9, 2014 6:47 PM UTC Many were quick to applaud the firing of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was unceremoniously suspended from professional football Monday — likely spelling an end to his career — after a video of him violently attacking his then-girlfriend Janay Palmer went viral. Some criticized the NFL’s lenient punishment of Rice before the entire video was made public. Twitter reacted with a mix of horror, bewilderment and sympathy as the news sparked a broad based conversation about domestic violence [organized around two hashtags](http://time.com/3307109/twitter-ray-rice-domestic-violence-abuse-whyistayed-whyileft/): #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft. This morning, Janay, who is now Rice’s wife, defended her relationship in an I[nstagram post](http://time.com/3308901/janay-rice-ray-rice-nfl-baltimore-ravens/) that lambasts the “media and unwanted opinions from the public” for causing her family pain: “If your intensions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels,” Janay said. That statement caused another social media firestorm. The reactions ranged from sadness and sympathy to criticism of Janay. Here are some of the most powerful tweets: > [](https://twitter.com/kittyjud34/status/509399193652580352) > [](https://twitter.com/nataliaallzoppp/status/509399022650793984) > [](https://twitter.com/ReproRights/status/509367869847916544) > [](https://twitter.com/Tuliyana/status/509399109904924672) > [](https://twitter.com/crushabledotcom/status/509382851503337472) > [](https://twitter.com/DC%5FSports%5Ffan/status/509399017735094272) > [](https://twitter.com/ThatFOOL%5FMoe/status/509398621377531904) > [](https://twitter.com/HeyItsSqueakers/status/509400069272264704) > [](https://twitter.com/SimplyMahogany/status/509399380940820480) > [](https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/509379552439992320) > [](https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/509366117748727808) > [](https://twitter.com/SoulRevision/status/509379001534529536) > [](https://twitter.com/T%5Fmonster/status/509376718524911617) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3311509/ray-rice-janay-ravens-defense/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3311509/ray-rice-janay-ravens-defense/"},"headline":"13 Thoughtful Tweets About Janay Rice's Instagram Statement","datePublished":"2014-09-09T18:47:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:57.059Z","description":"The wife of disgraced NFL player Ray Rice stunned observers on Tuesday by lambasting critics of her relationship and her husband","url":"https://time.com/3311509/ray-rice-janay-ravens-defense/","keywords":["Living","twitter","abuse","NFL","domestic violence","ray rice"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3311509/ray-rice-janay-ravens-defense/","name":"13 Thoughtful Tweets About Janay Rice's Instagram Statement"}}]}] ```