ST. JOSEPH, Mo. AP - Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice has "completely changed" after causing a chain-reaction crash last year on a Dallas highway that left multiple people injured, cost him more than 1 million in a settlement to victims, and resulted in a 30-day jail sentence that he will have to fulfill at some point in the future.
Rice spoke Saturday for the first time in training camp, and the first time since the 25-year-old playmaker tore a ligament in his right knee in Week 4 - an injury that wound up requiring season-ending surgery.
"I've completely changed. You have to learn from things like that," Rice said of the March 2024 accident, when prosecutors said he was driving nearly 120 mph on the North Central Expressway and made "multiple aggressive maneuvers" before striking the other vehicles.
"I've learned," Rice continued, "and taken advantage of being able to learn from something like that."
Rice pleaded guilty in July to two third-degree felony charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said, Rice was sentenced to five years of deferred probation and 30 days in jail, along with paying victims' out-of-pocket medical expenses totaling about 115,000.