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 "There's no way," Palmer told NBC in an interview that aired
Monday. "He knows what he would have to deal with. I'm not going to
sit there in silence and let something happen to me and, God forbid,
in front of my child."
Ray Rice's one-punch knockout of Palmer, who was then his fiancée,
put his NFL career in jeopardy and thrust the issue of domestic
abuse into the national spotlight.
The first video of the fight that went viral in February showed Rice
calmly pulling an unconscious Palmer from the elevator.
"He was in such shock that this had just happened, and he didn't
know how to function at that point," said Palmer. "By that time
hotel security is there. The police are there."
 NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice for two games, but
after a second video emerged in September from inside the elevator
showing the knockout punch, the Ravens released Rice and Goodell
suspended him indefinitely from the league.
However, an independent arbitrator on Friday said that Rice, in
essence, was sanctioned twice for the same crime and ruled he was
free to sign with any National Football League team.
In her comments Monday, Palmer said "people are human" and are prone
to lapses in judgment.
"Everybody makes mistakes," she said. "You would think that we lived
in a country of people who have never made a mistake, who've never
sinned ever in their life."
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In the second part of the interview, which will air on Tuesday,
Palmer said the Ravens gave her "a general script" when she and Ray
Rice met with the media following the fight and she apologized.
"That was frustrating for me, because obviously people took it as,
you know, I'm taking light off of what Ray did," she said. "In no
way... He was wrong."
"At the same time I didn't think it was completely wrong for me to
apologize, because at the end of the day I got arrested too, so I
did something wrong too."
While Rice is now free to join any club, it remains unclear if any
team will sign the 27-year-old, three-time Pro Bowl running back.
(Reporting by Steve Ginsburg; Editing by Susan Heavey)
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