Hundreds Show Up For Ray Rice Jersey Exchange

Hundreds of people showed up at the Baltimore Ravens stadium in Baltimore, Maryland Friday to participate in the team's two-day event that will allow fans who own a Ray Rice jersey to exchange it for the jersey of a different player.

Photographs from the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore show long lines of former Rice fans, waiting to have their jerseys exchanged. Multiple photos and comments uploaded to Twitter suggested the long line, which began at around 7 a.m., would take two hours to get through.

An announcement posted on the Ravens website indicates that professional NFL employees will be on hand at the exchange to verify no counterfeit Rice jerseys are being exchanged for real ones.

 The jerseys must "be officially licensed by the NFL, be manufactured by Nike or Reebok," and "have been purchased or been available for purchase at the Ravens Team Store at M&T Bank Stadium or the Ravens Official Team Store online," the website states. 

"Exchanges must be made in person to verify that products are licensed. (A licensing expert representing the NFL will be on hand to verify that jerseys qualify for exchange)," the statement adds.

Rice was dropped from the Baltimore Ravens team last week after a surveillance video surfaced showed him knocking out his wife, Janay Palmer, in a hotel elevator earlier this year.

The NFL and its commissioner Roger Goodell have received criticism for their handling of the situation, and Goodell released a statement Friday saying that "Unfortunately, over the past several weeks, we have seen all too much of the NFL doing wrong. That starts with me."

"But now I will get it right, and do whatever is necessary to accomplish that. […] The same mistakes can never be repeated," Goodell added.