After Patrick Mahomes Placed Faith in Rashee Rice, Andy Reid Admits Overlooking SMU Incident for Chiefs WR

Two words to describe Andy Reid’s approaches to the controversies about the Kansas City Chiefs players: forgiving and understanding. A couple of players from the Super Bowl-winning team, including, but not limited to Rashee Rice and Harrison Butker have faced disputes this offseason and Andy Reid chose to handle it his own way. That is by displaying his compassion and understanding. For him, it is about growth, learning, and looking forward.

A couple of weeks ago, Rashee Rice crashed his Lamborghini Urus, with multiple people getting injured as Rice racked up 8 felonies and millions of dollars in reparations. Big Red issued a philosophy that “We get in, we get out, we learn, and we go forward,” and that is how he’s trying to approach the Rashee Rice debacle. Some time ago Reid addressed the arrest of his receiver on a Zoom call.

Surprisingly, it brought up the infamous SMU incident associated with the Chiefs WR. “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,” said Reid about drafting Rice, despite the allegations surrounding the football professional.

Rice, during his SMU days, was reportedly involved in a shooting incident during his time at SMU. The receiver believed that the former SMU player Kendric Davis was seeing his girlfriend. The Super Bowl-winning WR went to the game and later allegedly got involved with shooting up Davis’ car with some of his friends. The Chiefs were aware of the incident but still drafted him.

Now, this off-season the player has been involved in more controversies, yet the Chiefs have taken a similar approach. Coach Andy Reid, in particular, has pointed out that he will let the law carry out their process and believes it is about moving forward from here. “As long as he’s learned from it, that’s the important part of it and we’ll take it from there and see what takes place, but right now we’re just kind of gathering everything and trying to make sure we have all the bases covered there,” Reid expressed. Rice has started attending the OTAs along with his other teammates and is glad to be back at practice again.

“I want to keep gathering information from the law enforcement people, and we’ll just see where everything goes from there (and) let the process take place,” the head coach admitted. For now, Patrick Mahomes also seems to be committed to having Rice on the team working for the better.

Patrick Mahomes on Rashee Rice being back again

Through all the adversities, Patrick Mahomes is trying to help Rashee Rice get back on his feet again. About 2 weeks ago, Mahomes took the podium and laid out the plans he has for the receiver and how he’s focused on helping him become a better professional and a better person.

“It’s not just me. [We’re all] just trying to do whatever we can to teach him how to learn from his mistakes,” said Mahomes two weeks ago. “Obviously, that was a big mistake. You get to learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again and try to do whatever you can to be the best person you can be in society, not only for yourself but for the people around you. I think he is doing that.”

The QB further added, “Right now, we’re just going to keep trying to do whatever we can to get him on the right path, so that he can be a great football player, obviously, but we want to be a great person, too.” Recently, Rice also came forth to address the situation and said that “he’s learned” from the situation.

“I’ve learned so much from that,” Rice admitted. “All I can do is mature and continue to grow from that. This is a step in a better direction for me.” The WR also added later, “Accidents and stuff like that happen, but all you can do is move forward and walk around being the same person, try to be positive so that everybody can feel your love and your great energy.” All eyes remain on the Kansas City Chiefs and Rashee Rice at the moment.