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By Andrea Peyser
September 10, 2014

Wake up Janay! You need to sack Ray

It’s time to get a clue, Janay Palmer Rice. Talk to your girlfriends. Seek professional help. Take karate lessons and hire a fierce divorce lawyer.

The lady whom Ray Rice claims to love, the recipient of the ex-Baltimore Raven running back’s vicious fists, on Tuesday proved that she’s blinded by love, a victim of Stockholm syndrome, or totally delusional. It makes me sad. It makes me sick.

Just as I thought she might be ready to kick the bum to the curb, she defended him Tuesday like a lioness on steroids.

“I woke up this morning feeling like I had a horrible nightmare, feeling like I’m mourning the death of my closest friend,’’ she posted on her Instagram account, which later was made private.

Was she showing a hint of remorse for behaving as such a bad example for all brutalized women?

She blasted the media, the National Football League and Rice’s many critics for his troubles. She even blamed herself.

But the one person who got a pass was Rice.

“But to have to accept the fact that it’s reality is a nightmare in itself. No one knows the pain that [the] media & unwanted options from the public has caused my family,’’ she wrote.

“To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret every day is a horrible thing. To take something away from the man I love that he had worked his ass for all his life just to gain ratings is horrific.

“THIS IS OUR LIFE! What don’t you all get. If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels. Just know we will continue to grow & show the world what real love is! Ravensnation we love you!’’

Exactly what Janay Rice believes she has to regret about this awful incident, she never explained. I’d like to think she regrets ever laying eyes on the dirtbag she married.

What kind of hold does Rice have on this lady?

On Monday, the world watched, in horror and disgust, a video of Rice, 27, using his multimillion-dollar left hand to clobber his then-fiancée, now his wife, in an elevator inside the Revel hotel and casino in Atlantic City in February.

In a security tape unearthed by TMZ.com, Rice pummeled his lady once, then twice, connecting with a vicious punch to the jaw. Then she fell and hit her head on an elevator rail. She was out cold. In another tape, the Associated Press reported, the pair cursed at one another inside the elevator and Janay, 26, spat in Rice’s face before he landed the wicked blow.

Then Rice was seen dragging her unconscious body like a rag doll. But her unmoving form seemed too heavy even for a muscled monster like Rice.

The public was revolted. Rice was cut from the Ravens in the midst of his five-year, $40 million contract and the NFL suspended him indefinitely. Apparel maker Nike and VertiMax, a jump training program, canceled his endorsement deals. His former teammates turned their backs.

But just when it seemed that Rice was destined for a career as a sneaker salesman — if he even could get that kind of job — Janay Rice had his back.

She needs to break the vise-like grip this character has on her — before it’s too late.

How could the NFL initially only have suspended Rice for two games? Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner, insists he hadn’t seen the punching video until Monday, but he did see one in which Rice struggled to drag his lady from the elevator. At first, Janay and her fiancé were both charged by police with assault! But the charges were dropped against Janay, and the man who hit her was promised by a New Jersey prosecutor and a judge that a charge of aggravated assault against him would vanish if he completed a one-year pretrial diversion program.

He married his lady a month after the beat-down. He almost got away with it.

Listen up, Janay. You now have the chance — I would say it’s your duty as a woman — to rise up and claim the right to be a victim no more. No longer should a man be invited to prove his masculinity by bashing in your face.

Let’s hope she gets the message.