Chiefs’ Rashee Rice to play first game in 12-plus months after 6-game suspension: ‘The time is finally here’

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Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice will play in his first game since Sept. 29, 2024 when he takes the field Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Rice, 25, flirted with a 1,000-yard season as a rookie in 2023, then missed most of the 2024 season with a knee injury and then served a six-game suspension to start the 2025 season because of his role in a multi-car Dallas crash that injured multiple people last year, for which he was sentenced to five years probation and 30 days in jail.

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“I’m sure he’s excited to play,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said Friday. “He hasn’t played in a real game for a year and six weeks or whatever it is.”

Rice, a former second-round pick out of SMU, has envisioned sharing the field with fellow Chiefs wideouts Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown.

“I’ve been looking forward to this probably for, I think it’s been like 380-something days I haven’t played a regular-season game,” Rice told reporters Friday.

“It’s been a long time coming, and the time is finally here.”

[Get more Chiefs news: Kansas City team feed]

In addition to paying more than $115,000 worth of medical expenses for the victims, Rice pleaded guilty to two felony charges in July related to the hit-and-run crash, which occurred on March 30, 2024.

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Driving a Lamborghini, Rice was racing a Corvette and caused a chain-reaction highway accident. Both high-speed drivers didn’t check on the people in the cars affected by the collision and then fled the scene.

Rice’s 30 days of jail time can be served at any point of his five years on probation. He was asked Friday about his plan for navigating that jail time, and if he’ll serve it in Missouri or Texas.

“All that stuff will be taken care of,” Rice said. “I’m here to talk about football right now.”

Because the plea deal Rice took includes deferred probation, his case will be dismissed if he successfully completes probation.

Rice returns in Week 7, just as the Chiefs have seemed to find their groove. Kansas City has won three of its past four games following an uncharacteristic 0-2 start to the year.

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As a rookie in 2023, Rice caught 79 passes for 938 yards and 7 touchdowns. Although his sophomore campaign was cut short, the expectation is for Rice to become quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ top target.

That might not happen right away, however.

“I’m going to just watch him in the game, and we’ll see how he does,” Reid said Friday, when he was asked if Rice will be ramped up to a normal workload.

“He knows everything. It’s just, I don’t know how many reps he’s going to get. I’m sure it won’t be every rep. So I’d like to see how he does with what we give him.”

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Reid said Rice “looked sharp” in practice this week, noting that the third-year receiver is in good shape.

Rice explained that, after preseason, he went down to Florida to train. He wanted to mimic the training camp heat he was previously facing.

“Just train every day, Monday through Friday, and do some type of workout on Sunday to have my mind ready to get active on a game day,” he said.

As for the playbook, well, Rice was never concerned about that. He mentioned it took him only two days to get back in the swing of things, “but it’s all back natural again,” he said.

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Rice was asked what he’s learned going the past 12-plus months without a football game.

“I learned that I love the game of football,” he said.

“Probably my second love right there, and not only do I love the game of football, but I was able to realize how strong I am mentally being able to face a lot of adversity at the time.”

This news was originally published on this post .