Chiefs’ Rashee Rice: I’ve ‘Fully Modified’ Since Inflicting Freeway Crash

Kansas Metropolis Chiefs broad receiver Rashee Rice has “utterly modified” after inflicting a chain-reaction crash final yr on a Dallas freeway that left a number of folks injured, price him greater than $1 million in a settlement to victims, and resulted in a 30-day jail sentence that he should fulfill in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.

Rice spoke Saturday for the primary time in coaching camp, and the primary time because the 25-year-old playmaker tore a ligament in his proper knee in Week 4 — an damage that wound up requiring season-ending surgical procedure.

“I’ve utterly modified,” Rice mentioned of the March 2024 accident, when prosecutors mentioned he was driving practically 120 mph on the North Central Expressway and made “a number of aggressive maneuvers” earlier than putting the opposite autos.

“It’s a must to be taught from issues like that. I’ve realized and brought benefit of having the ability to be taught from one thing like that.”

Rice pleaded responsible in July to 2 third-degree felony prices of collision involving severe bodily damage and racing on a freeway inflicting bodily damage. As a part of the plea settlement, prosecutors mentioned, Rice was sentenced to 5 years of deferred probation and 30 days in jail, together with paying victims’ out-of-pocket medical bills totaling about $115,000.

He individually agreed to settle a civil case for $1,086,000, which included prejudgment curiosity and attorneys’ charges.

In the meantime, the Chiefs are bracing for Rice to serve an NFL suspension, although the size and time stays unsure. League spokesman Brian McCarthy mentioned in a press release not too long ago that the case “stays below assessment.”

“My authorized workforce is dealing with all that,” Rice mentioned. “All I can give attention to is what I can management proper now and that is me doing what I do.”

Thus far, the knee damage that robbed him of most of final season hasn’t held him again.

After a standout rookie season, Rice caught 24 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns in his first three video games final season. However in Week 4, after Patrick Mahomes had thrown an interception, the quarterback unintentionally dived into Rice’s leg as they had been making an attempt to make the sort out, tearing the lateral collateral ligament within the broad receiver’s knee.

Rice had surgical procedure and was again for summer season exercises, and he is been full-go all through coaching camp.

“I really feel 100%,” Rice mentioned. “I am excited to be again out right here with the blokes. Simply form of mainly the place I left off at. The one factor is get again on the sector and proceed to have enjoyable doing what I do.”

The Chiefs had hoped that Rice can be a focus of the offense final season in a large receiver corps that included Marquise Brown and then-rookie Xavier Worthy. However that triumvirate by no means materialized, as a result of “Hollywood” Brown was damage on the primary play of the preseason — he did not return till the playoffs — and Rice finally joined him on injured reserve.

Now, the Chiefs have all three of them wholesome, Worthy has a yr of expertise below him, and fourth-round draft choose Jalen Royals has turned some heads in coaching camp. Throw in veteran JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton, who seems to be profiting from a recent begin in Kansas Metropolis, and the Chiefs are assured of their depth on the place.

Particularly if Rice should serve a suspension through the upcoming season.

“I am locked in,” Rice mentioned. “That is what I do. That is my job. That is what I like to do. So even once I’m not capable of be with the workforce, I’ll be working onerous to get again with them as quickly as attainable.”

Reporting by The Related Press.

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