Rashee Rice made his season debut on Thursday, and he is positioned to remain available for the Chiefs throughout the season. The second-year Chiefs wideout faces eight felony charges stemming from a March street racing incident, but the NFL does not plan to place him on the commissioner’s exempt list. 
That move is generally reserved for cases of domestic violence allegations. In Rice’s situation, the league has followed its standard procedure in waiting for the legal process to play out before conducting an investigation and issuing discipline under the personal conduct policy. Criminal charges are pending for Rice and former SMU teammate Teddy Knox, the other driver involved in the crash which caused multiple injuries before they left the scene. As Nate Taylor and Dianna Russini of The Athletic note, though, no criminal trial date has been set (subscription required).
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk adds that the earliest a trial could take place is likely December, meaning Rice is set to play out the season before any further developments take place (video link). A civil suit has also be filed by two of the victims, with $10MM being sought in damages. A date for that trial has been set; it will take place in June 2025. Between now and then, Rice should be expected to play a key role in Kansas City’s passing attack just as he did during his rookie campaign.
The 24-year-old’s pre-draft process was affected by character concerns, and an incident during his SMU days was on NFL teams’ radars. The Athletic piece notes that at least three teams took Rice off their draft boards as a result, but that did not hurt his stock. The Chiefs – who have acquired and retained a number of players faced with off-field issues over time – selected Rice 55th overall.
Kansas City’s offseason included multiple moves at the receiver position after production from that position (with the exception of Rice) proved hard to come by. Free agent pickup Marquise Brown was out for Week 1, but first-round rookie Xavier Worthy had an impressive debut with a pair of touchdowns. Those two speedsters are joined by the likes of Skyy Moore, Mecole Hardman, Justin Watson and JuJu Smith-Schuster at the receiver spot. It remains to be seen how that group will fare compared to last season, but Rice will be an important member of the unit for the foreseeable future.
Judging by the way the REFS let the DC call a timeout, bogus lopsided penalties, no this. It’s clear as day THE FIX IS IN
Should have been obvious last year when the refs called zero offsides on their o-line in the playoffs
Most people already complain about how arbitrary the NFL punishment system is. You really want to have them issue judgement before the legal process plays out?
I mean that’s what they always do…so maybe be consistent for once.
Well when betting on non football games gets you suspended 6 games while the NFL is in bed with draft kings, yeah, Id definitely love for them to just issue a year long suspension for a dude who is facing 8 felonies? Heck 16 games. 2 for each felony.
NFL doesnt need evidence or proof or convictions to hand down suspensions.
At the very least he should be on the commission exempt list and still be paid till the legal proceedings play out.
Betting on NFL games is a totally different box of issues then off the field legal issues.
Betting on NON* NFL games.
Since it has 0 bearing on the NFL if someone bets on NCAAF, NBA, MLB, idk why NFL suspended players betting on NON NFL games.
I missed the bin when I read it, but still professional athletes betting on other pro sports is a whole separate can of worms then off the field stuff.
Betting on sports other than the NFL is also off the field stuff. It makes literally no sense to discipline betting on College Basketball but do nothing when a Chiefs player faces eight felonies.
I’m referring to off the field stuff that involves police investigations. The police aren’t going to do anything about players betting so therefore it is up to the sports leagues to police that. The lines about betting are too blurry to allow players to bet on games and now with the leagues all in bed with the sports books the sports books definitely don’t want players betting. Too easy to get inside information.
Look the bottom line is we live in a country that’s system is based on innocent until proven guilty. “Proven” being the key word there. Nothing has been proven in court yet and the precedent set currently is that the NFL waits for these things to play out in court. Rare exceptions are made in cases like Ray Rice where the evidence is made public and the NFL is forced to take action or lose massive sponsorship money.
I’m not saying it’s right, I’m not saying I agree with it, and I’m certainly not trying to defend his actions. What I’m saying is completely about the reality of the situation.
I actually think that you’re right, technically correct, and I would personally prefer it that way. However, that’s not what the league does, even in much less clear cases with no evidence at all. An argument could be made that the clear and accessible video evidence that’s already circulated also makes this worse; it’s not like there’s a “he said, she/he/they said” going on. In addition, Rice got into another serious situation shortly after that he will not face consequences for. In addition, Rice had an even more serious situation before his NFL time that he will not face consequences for (and justifiably so from the NFL’s perspective-the NFL was not even in the picture at the time).
I intentionally repeated my wording there, not in an effort to be condescending (because I would strongly prefer if your suggestion was the way that it was always done), but because the reactions in this case are enhanced due to the fact that Rice won’t just be avoiding punishment for just THIS incident, but for several. And, besides, this seems like this is shat the Exempt list SHOULD be for. There’s strong enough evidence to impugn Rice enough to park him there to be safe. If, by taking this approach in this case they are guaranteeing that this is how they will handle future cases, then I would completely welcome it. As it stands now, though, I have to say that I don’t like it. It’s inconsistent and unfair to the those involved in league discipline before, and not satisfactory for any of us who remember them.
Ray Rice threw one punch at his girlfriend and was banned from the league for life before any criminal trial.
Rashee Rice smashed up a bunch of cars while illegally street racing on a highway, injured multiple people, fled the scene, and left behind drugs…
League decides to let him play an entire season in effort to keep ratings up while his team attempts a never before achieved three-peat.
Rules for thee, indeed.
As a fan of their rival, I decided last night to just watch NCAAF this year.
Probably should say that you agree with ray rice punishment and not diminish it to “one punch.” And if you read the article ray rice fell under the domestic part which they do act on. This is a legal action outside of domestic.
I don’t think that that was his point. His point was that the league punished that immediately without waiting on any legal process to play out. In this case, they are not.
Richard Sherman’s behavior fell under the domestic violence part but the league did nothing to him. Cowards!
The American court system is painfully slow.
Rice earned a game ball for sure. What I don’t understand is why the Ravens went out and got Henry if they’re going to continue letting Lamar rush 16 times a game. Jackson is just an injury waiting to happen if Baltimore sticks with that strategy.
its the O-Line, they collapse as soon as Lamar steps out of the pocket
Did anyone else think that it was odd for the Ravens to tout, through their pregame prep interviews with the announcers so that Collinsworth could talk about it during the broadcast, how their recently injured running heavy quarterback had lost twelve pounds? I’m sure that he is much quicker than his already impressive level before, but it seems to me that I’d rather Jackson avoid running so much, and if so, perhaps be a bit bigger to help protect against a difficult to land but inevitable in occurring tackle.
That offensive line really doesn’t help, either, at least in pass blocking. Losing one of the best line coaches in the league just before the season (in very unfortunate circumstances) doesn’t help the doesn’t help.
What a great game! Got to love starting the season with a victory against a really good team!!
Featuring a player that the league would have already suspended if he’d been on any team except KC. Don’t claim consistency when he injured innocent people while committing a crime
Boo hoo!!
It was a good game except for some brutally blown defensive coverages by each team. A marquee matchup like that should really be scheduled late in the season when teams are jockeying for a playoff bye.
Can’t argue with that.
The game was boring for the most part because of the officiating. They decided to crack down on illegal formation for some bizarre reason even though it has very little bearing on the actual play and the fact that no fan on earth was clamoring for it. It’s just another silly penalty that inserts more officiating into the game, bogging everything down and negating potentially exciting plays. They should be *removing* this nonsense from the game, not adding more.
Also, they didn’t even call it consistently. They called it on the Ravens repeatedly but totally ignored the Chiefs doing the exact same thing. While also ignoring Jawaan Taylor false starting on every other play again. This season is officially rigged for Swifties.
I agree, as usual, the Chiefs get away with a lot of false starts and pick plays as well. The Ravens had their chances but Lamar isn’t great at throwing closer to the end zone. Likely should have had the TD but Bolton hit him high that made him concentrate more on his catch than where his feet were.
NFL has revenue dreams of KC playing for the 3-peat.
For example, that’s why there was no “forward progress” whistle when Pacheco lost a yard before getting pushed into the end zone.
I didn’t like that at all. The officiating was pretty bad in that game.
its not just the NFL, its basketball and baseball too, its not a chiefs thing at all.