Chiefs WR Rashee Rice suspended for first six games of 2025 season
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice has been suspended six games to start the 2025 season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy to start the 2025 regular season, the league announced Wednesday.
NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero initially reported the suspension earlier in the day and that Rice will serve out the penalty without appeal.
Rice, who is now prohibited from practicing with the Chiefs as well, is suspended without pay and effective immediately, becoming eligible for reinstatement on Oct. 13, following the Chiefs’ Week 6 game against the Detroit Lions.
Rice’s suspension stems from the 25-year-old’s conviction for, along with another driver, causing a multi-vehicle chain-reaction collision on March 30, 2024, in Dallas. Rice was sentenced to 30 days in jail on July 17. Rice pleaded guilty to two third-degree felony charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury.
The judge will allow Rice, who is paying roughly $115,000 to victims for their medical expenses, to choose the time or times he serves out his sentence.
Rice will miss the following games: Week 1 against the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil; Week 2 versus the Philadelphia Eagles; Week 3 at the New York Giants; Week 4 versus the Baltimore Ravens; Week 5 at the Jacksonville Jaguars; and Week 6 versus the Lions.
He will be eligible to play his first game of the 2025 regular season in Week 7 versus the Las Vegas Raiders.
The NFL initially proposed a suspension of double-digit games for Rice, which was the basis of the league and NFLPA’s initial inability to agree on the length of the penalty, leading to a disciplinary hearing scheduled for Sept. 30, Pelissero reported on Aug. 15. The lack of precedent for suspending a player for more than half of the season in a situation such as this was the reason behind the NFLPA and Rice’s representation pushing back.
The disciplinary hearing was ultimately not necessary, as the NFL and NFLPA came to an agreement on Rice’s discipline.
