Last month, we reported that Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice’s current off-field issues could be complicated by a previously unreported (but not unknown) incident while he was at SMU.
"[M]ultiple teams learned during the pre-draft process about an alleged incident involving Rice while he was at SMU,” we posted on May 10. “Rice believed former SMU basketball player Kendric Davis was seeing Rice’s girlfriend. Rice and some of his friends, per the specific information gathered by at least one team, went to an SMU basketball game. Rice (or someone with him), per the specific information gathered by at least one team, fired multiple bullets into the empty car belonging to Kendric Davis.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid recently was asked whether the team knew about the situation before drafting Rice.
“The way I’d leave it with you . . . is we knew enough to draft him, you know, and then we just went with the process and we, you know, we found that it was satisfactory for us,” Reid said.
Asked later to elaborate on his comments, Reid said this: “I’ll probably leave it right there. Yeah, I’ll leave it right there for you.”
As we reported at the time, the Chiefs were aware of the situation before drafting Rice. It’s believed every team was aware of it. For whatever reason, it remained under wraps for more than year. If/when Rice faces punishment under the Personal Conduct Policy for one or more recent off-field issues, that past situation can become an aggravating factor for the discipline eventually imposed.
