{"id":379703,"date":"2025-09-19T07:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/379703\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T07:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:25:12","slug":"travis-kelce-and-his-absurd-t-shirt-in-defense-of-chiefs-wr-rashee-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/379703\/","title":{"rendered":"Travis Kelce and his absurd T-shirt in defense of Chiefs WR Rashee Rice"},"content":{"rendered":"

We don\u2019t usually concern ourselves with the attire of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. The man\u2019s, shall we say, colorful sartorial choices are his business (and his fianc\u00e9e\u2019s).<\/p>\n

But we feel compelled to speak up about the \u201cFree 4\u201d T-shirts that Kelce and another player donned recently in support of teammate Rashee Rice, No. 4, who faces a six-game suspension.<\/p>\n

We have to ask: Is there a blank space where Kelce\u2019s good judgment should be?<\/p>\n

Rice, a former wide receiver for Southern Methodist University, was suspended for a very good reason. Last year, he sped down North Central Expressway in a rented sports car at 119 mph as he raced a friend, causing a six-vehicle collision in Dallas that injured multiple people. At least two children, ages 3 and 4, were in the wrecked vehicles. A mother told our newsroom colleagues that her young son was left crying and shaking.<\/p>\n

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As if all of this wasn\u2019t awful enough, Rice and his pals fled the scene. <\/p>\n

If you live in North Texas, you\u2019ve probably seen footage of the collision. It was a Saturday evening, and Central Expressway is one of the busiest thoroughfares in Dallas. Rice is lucky that he didn\u2019t kill anyone.<\/p>\n

Rice eventually apologized through his attorney. Two months ago, a Dallas County court sentenced him to 30 days in jail and five years\u2019 probation. If he successfully completes the deferred adjudication, he won\u2019t have a conviction on his record.<\/p>\n

Oh, and accommodations were made to work the jail sentence around his schedule.<\/p>\n

A six-game, unpaid suspension is small potatoes compared to what Rice did. And it was a punishment that Rice himself negotiated with the NFL, according to news reports.<\/p>\n

Yet Kelce wants the NFL to \u201cfree\u201d him from this mild consequence? <\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know what was going through Kelce\u2019s mind when he put on that shirt. What we can see is that the Chiefs are off to a rough start this season. Three plays into their opening loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, Kelce collided with Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy, sidelining him with a dislocated shoulder. Worthy didn\u2019t play in the Chiefs\u2019 Super Bowl rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles either, which Kansas City lost. We suppose the Chiefs are aching for backup.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, the T-shirt was a poor choice. Sports stardom has a way of intoxicating some athletes with a sense of entitlement, and the NFL has a sketchy history of holding players accountable. That the league meted out a punishment and that Rice accepted it is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Even before his romance with Taylor Swift made him one of the most famous people on earth, Kelce had built a reputation as an affable Everyman \u2014 someone you might have a beer with. <\/p>\n

Well, a good friend doesn\u2019t make excuses for bad behavior. Some things are more important than football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We don\u2019t usually concern ourselves with the attire of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. The man\u2019s,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,9488,18731,7,118,110,2438,2437,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-379703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-chiefs","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-editorials","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kansas-city","13":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","14":"tag-kansascity","15":"tag-kansascitychiefs","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115229774620535141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}