The NFL is paying close attention to the unfolding legal proceedings surround Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice.
Rice, 23, is suspected by police of racing and crashing his Corvette, which is believed to have caused a multi-vehicle accident, in Dallas before fleeing the scene.
Shocking dashcam footage surfaced over the weekend of a Dallas crash involving six cars, followed by a group of men walking away from the scene.
The Super Bowl winner has retained counsel and is cooperating with the authorities, his lawyer said Monday.
Amid the ongoing investigation, the league is monitoring the situation involving Rice, NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy told ESPN’s Adam Schefter Tuesday.
Fleeing the scene of an accident can result in serious criminal penalties in Texas and if Rice is found to have been driving the vehicle at the time of the accident, he could potentially face up to five years in prison, according to NBC Sports.
The NFL and the Chiefs could also look to take action of their own.
On Monday, Rice’s attorney Royce West said: ‘On behalf of Rashee Rice, his thoughts are with everyone impacted by the automobile accident on Saturday.
‘Rashee is cooperating with local authorities and will take all necessary steps to address this situation responsibly.’
Earlier this week, the Chiefs broke their silence on the matter when the franchise’s president Mark Donovan went on local talk radio and revealed that he wouldn’t jump to any conclusions or decisions just yet.
‘In all these situations you have to wait until you have all the facts and frankly, we don’t have all the facts at this point,’ Donovan told KCMO’s Pete Mundo on Monday.
‘The one comforting fact that we do have is that there was a multi-car crash in Texas, in Dallas, and fortunately, it doesn’t appear that anyone was hurt and we should be grateful for that.
‘We’ll get to the bottom of it, we’ll gather the facts and we’ll react accordingly.’
Dashcam footage from the incident shows a Lamborghini and Corvette going at high speed and colliding with a grey car on the North Central Expressway, pulling the cars across the road. It has been claimed the Lamborghini and Corvette, which police suspect Rice was driving, were racing.
Five men from the Corvette and Lamborghini then appeared to walk away from the scene on the shoulder of the highway. Rice, who helped the Chiefs win a second straight Super Bowl in February, was wanted by cops because the Corvette is either registered or leased to him.
Dallas News also quoted a witness saying they saw one of the men take ‘guns and bags from the vehicles’ before leaving the scene.
The incident is believed to have happened at 6:20pm local time. The Lamborghini is thought to have crashed into the median wall and caused ‘a chain reaction collision involving four other vehicles’, before the two drivers ran from the scene.
A woman involved in the collision – identified as 27-year-old Kayla Quinn – said the accident put her four-year-old son in danger and the men speeding walked away from the crash site without sympathy.
‘No one stopped,’ Quinn said to the DMN. ‘We had children, like, we had kids, you know what I’m saying?
‘It’s the fact that there was no sympathy shown to where y’all can even have the decency to stop and check to make sure someone’s OK, someone’s alive, you know?
‘I’m just blessed that I was able to walk out of there because it could have been so much worse.’
Quinn’s son was checked out by paramedics at the scene of the accident and was deemed to be alright.
Rice grew up in the Fort Worth suburb of North Richland Hills, Texas and spent all four years of his college career in Dallas at SMU.
He recorded 79 catches and 938 yards with a team-leading seven touchdown receptions in 16 games (eight starts) after being selected by Kansas City in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
He also had 26 catches for 262 yards and a score in four playoff games to help the Chiefs secure their second straight Super Bowl title.
He set a franchise rookie playoff record with 130 receiving yards in January’s 26-7 playoff win over Miami Dolphins, earning huge praise from Travis Kelce.
‘I’m proud of him,’ Kelce said. ‘I think he’s come a long way, and I think he’s still ascending as a player in this offense. It’s just been fun to see him rise to the occasion and really just catapult us in a lot of ways both in the pass game and run game.’
