On Wednesday, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid addressed multiple off-the-field issues involving players on his team this offseason.
Second-year pro Rashee Rice currently faces charges including aggravated assault after he and another driver of a speeding sports car allegedly caused a crash involving a half-dozen vehicles on a Dallas highway last month. The receiver also reportedly was suspected of involvement in an alleged assault at a nightclub in Dallas, but police said on Tuesday that Rice will not face charges from that incident.
In a separate incident, Chiefs offensive tackles Wanya Morris and Chukwuebuka Jason Godrick were arrested Thursday night on misdemeanor marijuana possession charges and released on bond Friday.
Reid was asked during his media availability at Chiefs OTAs on Wednesday what steps he takes to ensure players are making smart decisions outside of the team facility.
“Obviously, stay in touch with them, and you can communicate with them before they leave, make sure they take care of business,” Reid said. “Sometimes things happen, and then you’ve got to work through that.”
Rice is currently participating in the Chiefs’ offseason workout program — Kansas City began the OTAs portion of the program this week — and quarterback Patrick Mahomes said during his availability on Wednesday that a key right now is trying to teach Rice “how to learn from his mistakes.”
“Obviously, that was a big mistake, but you have to learn from it, 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,” Mahomes told reporters. “I think he is doing that. Right now, we’re just going to keep doing whatever we can to get him on the right path so that he can be a great football player, obviously, but we want him to be a great person, too.”
Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker made national news this month when he appeared as the commencement speaker at Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school in Kansas, and said most of the women receiving degrees were probably more excited about getting married and having children. Butker, who’s made his conservative Catholic beliefs well known, also assailed Pride month, a particularly important time for the LGBTQ+ rights movement, and President Joe Biden’s stance on abortion.
The NFL last week distanced itself from Butker’s comments, with Jonathan Beane, NFL senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, saying in a statement that Butker’s “views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked about Butker during his news conference to conclude the Spring League Meeting on Wednesday.
“We have over 3,000 players. We have executives around the league. They have diversity of opinions and thoughts just like America does,” Goodell said. “That’s something that we treasure. That’s part of ultimately what makes us as a society better, but we’re not going to go much beyond the statement that we made last week.”
Reid told reporters on Wednesday that he has not addressed the commencement comments with Butker, who has kicked for the Chiefs since 2017.
“Listen, I talk to Harrison all the time. I didn’t talk to him about this, didn’t think we needed to,” Reid said. “We’re a microcosm of life. Everybody’s from different areas, different religions, different races. So we all get along, we all respect each other’s opinions and not necessarily do we go by those, but we respect everybody to have a voice. That’s the great thing about America, man, and we’re just, like I said, a microcosm of that. My wish is that everybody could kind of follow that.”
Mahomes was also asked about his reaction to Butker’s address.
“I think it’s just … I know Harrison,” Mahomes said. “I’ve known him for seven years. I judge him by the character that he shows every single day, and that’s a good person. That’s someone who cares about the people around him, cares about his family and wants to make a good impact in society. When you’re in the locker room, there’s a lot of people from a lot of different areas of life. They have a lot of different views on everything, and we’re not always going to agree. There are certain things that he said that I don’t necessarily agree with, but I understand the person that he is and he’s trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction.
“That might not be the same values as I have, but at the same time, I’m gonna judge him by the character that he shows every single day, and that’s a great person. We’ll continue to move along and try to help build each other up to make ourselves better every single day. But at the end of the day, we’re gonna come together as a team. I think that’ll help out, as well as eliminating those distractions outside the building as well.”
Mahomes declined to specify which comments he disagreed with.
“I think there’s just certain values that people emphasize more than others, and there’s just certain things that I didn’t necessarily agree with,” Mahomes said. “But at the same time, I’m not gonna judge him by that. I judge him by the way he acts every single day. I’m not gonna get into the full details of the entire speech, but at the same time, I know what kind of person he is and I’m gonna make sure that I look at that first and then kind of let the other stuff handle itself.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
