Ray Rice. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Ray Rice, who was fired from the Baltimore Ravens after video of the running back assaulting his now wife was published online, has successfully appealed his indefinite suspension from the NFL.

The 27-year-old Rice is now eligible to play with any team in the NFL, ESPN reports, a ruling the league will accept. From the New York Times:

The decision Friday handed down by Barbara S. Jones, a onetime district court judge, was confirmed by a member of the N.F.L. Players Association.

Jones presided over a two-day meeting, on Nov. 5 and 6, of Rice’s appeal of his ban. Rice argued that he had been penalized twice for the same incident, once when [NFL Commissioner Roger] Goodell suspended him for two games and fined him $500,000, and again a few months later when video of the incident was published by the website TMZ and he was suspended indefinitely.

Jones disagreed with the N.F.L.’s assessment that Rice had misrepresented the severity of the incident when he met with Goodell in June to determine the original penalty. Rather, she said, the league had punished Rice unfairly, and his ban should be overturned.

In March, Rice was indicted for third-degree aggravated assault, charges later dropped. The next day, we married his now wife, Janay Rice. Goodell’s original punishment was handed down in July, but Rice was indefinitely suspended in September after TMZ published video showing Rice knocking Janay Rice to the ground in a casino elevator.

While Goodell said the original punishment was a mistake, he claimed to not have knowledge of the video’s contents until September. In her ruling, Jones found that Rice did not mislead Goodell when Rice disclosed what happened in June.

Janay Rice called the video’s release “a horrible nightmare,” telling ESPN in a newly published account:

I was over this, and I didn’t need the visual. How was seeing it going to help me? I knew that would only bring me back there. After Ray watched it, I asked him not to look at it again, because I knew it was only the devil trying to come in and ruin how far we’ve come. I refused to go backwards.

Of the assault in the elevator, Janay Rice said “what happened inside is still foggy to me.”

The only thing I know — and I can’t even say I “remember” because I only know from what Ray has told me — is that I slapped him again and then he hit me. I remember nothing else from inside the elevator.

The next thing I do recall is being in the casino lobby, surrounded by cops.