PFT PM: Rashee Rice suspended first 6 games
PFT Live with Mike Florio
Mike Florio
4.3 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 27 August 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
Why did Chiefs WR Rashee Rice accept a six-game suspension to start the season? As Mike Florio explains, with the NFL controlling the in-house process, the end result likely would have been more than six games.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We thought the chief's receiver Rashi Rice would be available for the first four, maybe five, maybe six games at the regular season, because the hearing in his disciplinary case wasn't supposed to happen until September 30. |
| 0:23.6 | When you factor in that natural delay, |
| 0:30.8 | and that would have guaranteed him four weeks, ruling, appeals, who knows how many games he would have been available for until he would have had to serve whatever the final number would have been. |
| 0:36.2 | We do know that the gap between the |
| 0:38.1 | league and Rice was too great for the two sides to reach an agreement. Well, they've now reached |
| 0:44.1 | an agreement. And the news of a six-game suspension, look, that's a lot more than Rice would have |
| 0:52.2 | argued for than Rice would have accepted before this all kind of fell |
| 0:57.4 | together the way it did. And I suspect that somebody got the message, hey, if you don't take |
| 1:03.7 | this deal, it's going to be worse than six games. It's going to be more than what you think |
| 1:10.2 | it's going to be. You're dealing with |
| 1:11.7 | the system that the NFL ultimately controls, even though there's a disciplinary officer who is |
| 1:17.4 | independent, not truly independent, but jointly hired by the NFL and the union to hear the |
| 1:23.6 | case and issue a decision. Only the findings of fact made by Judge Sue L. Robinson are |
| 1:30.9 | binding on the process. The punishment can always be appealed. By either side, she could have |
| 1:37.4 | decided, for example, four games. The NFL could have appealed it. Who do they appeal it to? |
| 1:41.4 | Who's got the final say? The commissioner or his |
| 1:45.0 | designee, which means that it's going to be whatever the NFL wants it to be. And don't talk |
| 1:50.8 | about precedent because here's what's unprecedented. The whole thing was on video. Yes, there have been |
| 1:56.3 | other incidents when guys were driving and they caused an accident and caused injuries. None of that was on |
| 2:01.4 | video. This was. And I think the hearing could have gotten a little ugly for Rashi Rice as more |
| 2:06.9 | facts came out. This is a smart move for both sides because it was never going to be one or two games, |
| 2:12.8 | ever. If anything, it was going to be closer to 10 games if they pushed it. So, so in lieu of having him available next Friday night when the chiefs play the |
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