NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported on Thursday that Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice is expected to have a disciplinary hearing with the NFL on Sept. 30 regarding potential punishment stemming from a 2024 crash that resulted in two third-degree felony charges. Rice played only four games for the Chiefs last season after suffering a torn lateral collateral ligament in his right knee. He made 24 catches for 288 yards and two touchdowns.
Former U.S. district judge Sue L. Robinson, who acts as the NFL and NFLPA’s jointly-appointed discplinary officer, will preside over the hearing. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Rice will likely be eligible for the Chiefs’ first four games of the season. The league and union have held talks about a possible settlement in the case, which could occur before the Sept. 30 hearing.
The news comes following word of Rice’s sentencing to 30 days in jail and five years’ probation for his part in the multi-vehicle crash in Dallas in March 2024. Rice was driving a Lamborghini that was racing a Corvette involved in an accident with three other vehicles on a highway in northeast Dallas. According to a police report Rice was driving 119 mph just before the crash occurred; at least four people were injured in the crash.
Rice and the driver of the Corvette (allegedly Teddy Knox) fled the scene without providing any information or checking if anyone involved in the crash required medical attention. Rice later turned himself in to the police nine days after the incident, where he went on to face eight charges including six counts of collision causing bodily injury, one count of collision causing serious bodily injury and one count of aggravated assault.
Dallas County court records indicate that two people involved in the accident sued Rice and Knox for $1 million in negligence and punitive damages, which was later settled in favor of the plaintiffs. The lawsuit claimed that numerous injuries from the crash included “trauma to the brain, lacerations to the face requiring stitches, multiple contusions about the body, disfigurement, internal bleeding, and other internal and external injuries that may only be fully revealed over the course of medical treatment.”
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