The Kansas City Chiefs have a receiver problem, and it goes well beyond what happened on the field last year. Rashee Rice is currently in jail, and the combination of his imprisonment, the surgery he had a week before being sentenced and a possible suspension have thrown the Chiefs’ receiver plans into something close to a state of chaos.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk knows this as well as anyone, and he took up the possibility of a Rice suspension in an article that came out today. Florio’s background as a lawyer often comes into play in situations like this, even though he’s aware that the NFL operates according to a set of rules that are separate from the law by design.
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Florio wisely stuck to his interpretation of the documents that will be involved, starting with the league’s Personal Conduct Policy. He noted that the list of prohibited conduct in that document includes “[i]llegal possession, use, or distribution of alcohol or drugs.”
The question from there is about whether a probation violation arising from a positive THC test amounts to the “illegal use of drugs,” as Florio noted. Rice didn’t commit what Florio called “a fresh violation of the law,” but he did do something he was told not to do during his five years of probation. He use of marijuana did trigger an incarcertation, however, so that’s where the law vs. the NFL gets a bit sticky.
Then there’s that catch-all provision in the document, which prohibits “conduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL clubs, or NFL personnel.” That’s the one that allows the league to largely do what it wants in these kinds of situation, regardless of how much teams object and players howl about it.
There’s another document that figures prominently in this, and that’s the NFL’s Substance Abuse Policy, which allows the commissioner to suspend players for up to four games.
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It does’t mention violations of law arising from a probation violation, Florio stated, adding that the list consists only of a violation resulting in a conviction, an admission, “a diversionary program, deferred adjudication, disposition of supervision, or similar arrangement including but not limited to nolo contendere.”
The real question is whether the league wants to take action against Rice, and no one knows the answer to that right now. What we do know is that Rice will miss the Chiefs’ mandatory minicamp, and according to Florio he’ll likely be fined upwards of $100,000. That’s a stiff penalty, but even a minimal suspension would be far more costly for both the Chiefs and Rice.