NFL-bound Rice handled himself admirably at Rutgers

After racking up 4,926 yards in three years at Rutgers, Ray Rice has decided to take his game to the NFL. AP

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Ray Rice thanked me. OK, he actually thanked all the writers who've covered him at Rutgers for the past three years.

"You guys helped me become the player I was," Rice said during a press conference in which he announced his intentions to forego a senior season and enter the NFL draft. "Your articles, talking about the person I am and the way I carried myself ... you really let the world know who I was off the field."

Rice gripped the podium, he looked out at all of us and said, "Thanks for everything you guys have done for me."

I'm not going to lie. I got a little verklempt.

Three Augusts ago, Rice showed up to Rutgers' training camp as a little 5-foot-9, fire-hydrant-sturdy afterthought. Sure, he'd been a two-time all-state player in New York and originally committed to Syracuse. But Syracuse was the only school -- except for Rutgers -- that wanted him as a running back. And Rutgers already had two senior tailbacks, a junior tailback and a sophomore tailback who'd each had at least one 100-yard game. The first story written about Rice was that he was at Rutgers with two of his high school teammates.

A month later, in the opener at Illinois, Rice was in Rutgers' starting backfield.

He was supposed to be too small and too slow, but Rice kept doing things that had me wondering who had come to such shortsighted conclusions. He'd run with one hand on the ground and he'd somehow scoot out of scrums. He had this uncanny patience, waiting behind his line for a seemingly absurd amount of time until his hole opened. His balance was incredible, and he reminded me of Tiki Barber. Except he didn't really talk.

We heard Rice liked to dance. We heard Rice was wickedly funny. Rice's cousin Khalid told me crazy stories about Ray demanding his training wheels come off (at age two) and Ray running stairs like Rocky (at five). But Rice just quietly followed Brian Leonard around, listening when Leonard told him to hand the ball to the ref, watching when Leonard started every postgame interview by thanking his linemen.

The next year -- Leonard's fifth at Rutgers -- the school's marketing folks got Leonard a Heisman spot on the jumbotron in Times Square. The coaches then slid Leonard to fullback and told Rice he was going to be the star.

Rice celebrated a touchdown in camp with a dance. But only after asking coach Greg Schiano for permission.

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