Rashee Rice Crash Victim's Lawyer Rips NFL For Punishment Delay
Rashee Rice Car Crash Victim's Lawyer Goes Off On NFL ... Why Delay Punishment?!?
Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice is reportedly set to play in the first few games of the NFL season while he awaits a disciplinary hearing over his role in a 2024 car crash ... and one of the accident victim's lawyers told TMZ Sports he can't believe that's an actual reality.
Marc Lenahan, the attorney representing Kathryn Kuykendall -- who sued Rice after she allegedly suffered multiple injuries when the wideout crashed his rented Lamborghini into the Uber she was in -- said his eligibility to start the year is nonsense, especially as they await a $1 million civil settlement he says they agreed to back in April.
"It makes no sense," the lawyer said.
"Poor Rashee says he can play, but can’t pay. He says his groin has healed up, but he still hasn't grown up."
Lenahan -- who's been practicing law for over 22 years -- continued his criticism by shading the NFL for what he says is a lack of empathy toward Kuykendall and the rest of the victims injured in the hit-and-run crash.
3/30/24
"The NFL is sending Poor Rashee to São Paulo to live it up," Lenahan said, "instead of to Wells Fargo to get a loan so he can pay up."
Rice drove a 2020 Urus at speeds of over 100 MPH on a Texas highway in March 2024 while racing a friend ... before he crashed it into several other vehicles. Instead of sticking around to render aid, he bolted from the scene.
He was arrested and charged over the matter ... and last month, he pleaded guilty to two felonies stemming from the incident -- including one count of racing on a highway causing bodily injury and one count of collision involving serious bodily injury.
He was sentenced to five years of probation -- as well as 30 days in a Dallas County jail.
Normally, the NFL would have already issued its punishment by now -- it did, after all, already suspend Vikings star Jordan Addison following the disposition of his criminal case last month -- but ESPN reported this week the league will wait until at least Sept. 30 to make a decision.
Three of the Chiefs' first four games of the season are arguably their most prominent -- as they play the Chargers in Brazil to open the year, before they take on the Super Bowl champion Eagles and eventually one of the AFC's best, the Baltimore Ravens.