Rashee Rice Accepts Heavy 6 Game Suspension to Start 2025 Season
Breaking news out of the NFL at noon today: Chiefs WR Rashee Rice will voluntarily miss the first 6 games of the 2025 NFL season as punishment for his involvement in a highway street racing car crash last year in Dallas. Rice faced eight charges in total for the incident, 6 of which were of collision resulting in bodily injury, and the other two an additional collision resulting in bodily injury and aggravated assault.
Rice pleaded guilty to two felony charges, one the aforementioned and the other racing on a highway, resulting in what the collision charges entailed. He will serve a 30-day jail sentence and be on probation for 5 years, and while the NFL may face some criticism for not dropping the hammer sooner, they waited until all criminal aspects of the case were determined. As of today, the NFL is still partially investigating itself, so the case on that end is not quite closed.
The incident occurred last April when Rashee and a fellow street racer were racing on a Dallas highway when his Lamborghini Urus lost control and subsequently caused a six-car pileup, with one family in one of the six cars still recovering from injuries sustained in the crash. The receiver also up and left the scene after the accident, resulting in his arrest. As for the other racer involved, it happened to be one of Rice’s ex SMU teammates, Teddy Knox, who was arraigned separately on aggravated assault charges. Knox was soon released on $40k bond, and the pair still has a small handful of lawsuits filed by the injured parties.
The highway on which Rice and Knox were racing another on, the North Central Expressway, has a posted speed limit of 65 mph, lowered from 70 mph. Both cars, the Urus and Knox’s car, a Chevy Corvette, were found to have been traveling at least 115 mph before impact, almost double the posted speed limit for the expressway. Quite frankly, it’s a miracle no one was seriously injured or even killed, as that speed has claimed at least one other life in Vegas. Former Raiders WR Henry Ruggs was sentenced to 3 years in prison after his Corvette slammed into the back of a woman’s Toyota RAV-4 at nearly 150 mph, resulting in a fatal fire.
This 6-game suspension will be very damaging for Rice and the Chiefs, as the now 3rd year wideout had an otherwise lackluster 2024 season, with just 288 yards on 24 catches and 2 touchdowns. By comparison, his rookie season in 2023 was considerably better, racking up 938 yards on 79 catches for 7 scores. Now, the 25-year-old will miss a significant chunk of this season, which will no doubt end up being a carbon copy of last season, unless he comes back strong in some way.
On top of that, that’s not the only kind of trouble Rice is facing- he’s also still dealing with the effects of a freak ACL tear from last season, which is why his 2024 output was so significantly lower than 2023. That injury happened in the Chiefs’ road loss to the Chargers, after Rice inadvertently collided with the legs of QB Patrick Mahomes, causing him to land awkwardly. Even if he does play this year, he’d have to be extra careful not to reaggravate such an injury, or it’ll be back-to-back seasons with an early exit.
Kansas City Chiefs, Andy Reid, Rashee Rice
Sep 29, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice (4) pounds his fist on the ground after an injury in the first half against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
In the meantime, the Chiefs still have viable options at WR, with the speedster Xavier Worthy, returning wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster, and rookies like Jalen Royals, plus 2nd years Jason Brownlee and Tyquan Thornton picking up any loose change. Two other names to keep an eye on are the 3rd X receiver, Jason Brownlee, and also rookie receiver Nikko Remigio out of Fresno State.
The Chiefs’ depth chart has already been updated with news of Rice’s suspension, with veteran wideout Hollywood Brown taking over the starting Y receiver spot, ahead of Thornton, while Royals is the 2nd choice for X receiver behind Worthy. Clearly, losing Rice may hurt KC’s offense a little, but it might not be enough for the Chiefs to have a bad season when Kelce and Mahomes are still perfectly healthy as ever.
See also: It’s Official: Travis Kelce and Superstar Taylor Swift Will (Presumably) Tie the Knot