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Ray Rice's wrongful termination grievance netted him a nice payday

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Ray Rice got a lot of money for not playing last season.

The Baltimore Ravens running back was cut amid public backlash after a video of him striking his fiancee in an elevator was released last September. It turns out the NFL and the Ravens made mistakes in handling Rice's punishment. The NFL's indefinite suspension of Rice was overturned last November when a former U.S. District Court judge ruled the league had improperly increased his punishment after the video surfaced. Rice also got a nice check from the Ravens in a wrongful termination grievance.

The Baltimore Sun's Aaron Wilson reported that Rice was paid $1.588 million by the Ravens in the grievance. Rice was scheduled to make $3.529 million in salary last season, the Sun said, but like most NFL contracts that was not guaranteed. The Ravens and Rice settled before an arbitration hearing, the Sun said.

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It's not a bad financial win for Rice (the Sun said he made more than $26 million off of his contract signed in July of 2012), but it doesn't put him any closer to playing again in the NFL.

Rice has been free to sign with any team for a while now, but if there has been interest it has been kept very quiet. He just turned 28 and has apologized many times for the incident, but is still unsigned.

Unless some team wants to take on the attention that will come with signing Rice, it's possible that the $1.588 million Rice received in his wrongful termination grievance will be his last NFL check.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!