Chiefs May Push to Accelerate Rashee Rice’s Looming Suspension in Wake of Knee Injury
Questions were looming coming into the year about how much Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice would play this season. As off-field issues and an ongoing criminal investigation went on, stemming from a street-racing incident that resulted in an arrest and multiple charges, there were concerns about his availability and a potential suspension.
Now that Rice has suffered a knee injury and is being put on the injured reserve, the Chiefs are looking to ramp up his disciplinary schedule and potentially get any looming suspension taken care of this season, rather than in the future.
That’s according to NBC Sports’ Mike Florio, who writes that the goal is to “resolve the eight pending felony charges and to serve any suspension this year, while he’s otherwise unable to play. Then, come 2025, the incident, and the injury, will be behind him.”
Rice went down with a knee injury in last week’s game after quarterback Patrick Mahomes dove into his knees trying to make a tackle following an interception. The initial fear was an ACL tear for the WR, but more clarification has not yet come as they work to figure out the extent of the injury.
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid says that the main problem right now is swelling, which they are waiting to subside before doing further testing.
Meanwhile, with a trip to the IR, Rice will be out for at least the next four weeks, and potentially the rest of the year if his injury is significant enough. This provides an opportunity for the Chiefs to knock out two birds with one stone.
The civil lawsuit trial for Rice was originally scheduled for June 23, 2025, with a criminal trial scheduled for sometime in the future as well, though that date has not been made public.
Rice, 24, faces charges of aggravated assault and collision involving serious bodily injury after he was part of a high-speed car crash in Dallas on March 30. Rice also faces a civil lawsuit related to the accident.
Whether or not Rice is healthy enough to play again this season, the Cheifs may try to make it seem like he could return so that a potential suspension is still applied this year, rather than pushing it to next year.
For now, there is a lot of information left to gather, both concerning the injury and then potential ramped-up timeline for discipline. There is more news to come in the following days and weeks.
2024, 10:03 AM.
