During the regular season, the Kansas City Chiefs found themselves struggling at the wide receiver position. Consistent drops, silly penalties, and a lack of big plays came back to haunt the team, which posted its worst regular season in the Patrick Mahomes era.
Yet the Chiefs still ended up winning the Super Bowl. Along the way, Rashee Rice emerged as the team's top wide receiver, a nice complement to Travis Kelce as a target for Patrick Mahomes. Rice was only a rookie, but he led the team in touchdowns, finished second in receptions and receiving yards, won a title, and seemed poised for big things.
In case you have not heard, on Saturday evening in Dallas, a Corvette and a Lamborghini sport utility vehicle were racing down a highway and caused a six-car accident. A few of the occupants of the other vehicles were treated for minor injuries, though thankfully, it seems like everyone avoided anything too severe. Both the Corvette and the Lamborghini are allegedly linked to Rashee Rice as the current renter/owner/lessor. A nearby car captured the crash in dashcam footage:
Making matters potentially much, much worse, according to local witnesses, five people from the Lamborghini and Corvette allegedly refused to cooperate in the aftermath and instead walked away from the scene. Literally, they walked down the highway, up an exit ramp into a neighborhood. Photos obtained by TMZ shows these five men walking away from the crash along the freeway. One of the men walking away much looks very, very, very much like Rashee. The individual is wearing what looks like the exact shirt that Rashee was photographed wearing in a social media post just a few hours before the crash.
Today Rice is apparently cooperating with authorities. However, if he faces significant legal penalties and the Chiefs release him, it would cost him millions. Maybe even tens of millions long-term…
Ryan Kang/Getty Images
Rice just completed the first year in a 4-year, $6,495,208 deal. He's guaranteed $3.51 million between a signing bonus, his 2023 salary, and his 2024 salary. If he is released with cause, he would lose all bonus and salary for the 2025 and 2026 portions of the contract. That would mean forfeiting between about $2.98 and $4.03 million.
It could get even worse, though. Rice turns 24 this month. He'd hit free agency after his age-26 season, among the prime years for many wide receivers. While Rice wasn't an elite receiver in his rookie season, he'd likely continue to improve and could command an impressive multi-year deal. Going by today's salaries, a four-year deal worth $40 to $60 million would put Rice among the top 25-earning receivers. If that second contract never comes, it's more money left on the table.
Depending on how everything shakes out, Rice may still be on a roster in 2024, either via the Chiefs or another team. But in the worst-case scenario, he just gave up millions of dollars in potential salary.
And btw, if the concept of a promising NFL star potentially costing himself his career because of a terrible accident involving a speeding black Corvette sounds familiar, that's because it's the EXACT circumstances that happened to Henry Ruggs. In November 2021, Henry crashed his black Corvette while speeding down a residential street in Las Vegas. The accident killed on person and a dog. In August 2023 Henry was sentenced to serve 3-10 years in prison. Ruggs has already lost 75% of a $16 million Raiders contract and will likely not play in the NFL ever again.
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