Rashee Rice's SMU Skeletons Surface Amid Recent Arrests, May Impact NFL Discipline

College football programs need to learn what they painstakingly cover up about their star players for short-term gain will often come back to hurt that player and the program more later than it likely would have in the first place.

Southern Methodist University in Dallas may be realizing that now, as Kansas City Chiefs star wide receiver Rashee Rice's SMU skeletons may be surfacing amid his recent arrests.

OPINION: What Was Rashee Rice Thinking?

Rice, 24, was recently arrested on eight felony charges concerning a hit-and-run accident on March 30 involving six vehicles after Rice was drag racing his Lamborghini at 119 mph on a Dallas highway. Then this week, Rice was accused of hitting a photographer at a Dallas nightclub in the wee hours of Monday morning.

All this after Rice found himself on top of the world following a spectacular rookie season in which he helped lead the Chiefs to the Super Bowl LVIII title last February. He led Chiefs' wide receivers with 79 catches for 938 yards and seven touchdowns in the 2023 regular season.

Kansas City Chiefs' wide receiver Rashee Rice gains yards after a catch against Baltimore in the AFC Championship game on Jan. 28 in Baltimore that the Chiefs won to reach the Super Bowl. (Getty Images)

Rice played as a first-round pick would in 2023, but he was just the 55th player taken overall late in the second round.

And now we know the mystery behind why an obvious first-round player based on his talent displayed at SMU went so late after the entire NFL avoided taking him earlier because of whispered behavioral issues at SMU. Issues that were gleaned covertly before the 2023 draft by the various former detectives and law enforcement types who fill all 32 NFL staffs.

Alleged Rashee Rice Shooting Incident At SMU

Rice and/or one of his friends allegedly fired multiple bullets into the empty vehicle of former SMU basketball player Kendric Davis during one of Davis' games while the two were at SMU, according to a story by Profootballtalk.com's Mike Florio that cites multiple unidentified sources.

Rice did this allegedly because he believed Davis was seeing Rice's girlfriend, according to the story, which says SMU never reported the incident to the proper authorities. Rice played for SMU from 2019-22. Davis, also 24, played point guard for SMU from 2019-22 before transferring to Memphis for the 2022-23 season. He is now in the NBA G League.

Every NFL team found out about the incident before the 2023 draft, which is often the case during pre-draft dragnets as all NFL teams compile in-depth files of virtually all prospective picks. The details of the incident and any other of Rice's possible illegal activities at SMU could weigh significantly in the discipline that the NFL eventually hands down regarding Rice's recent arrests and accusations against him.

SMU campus and athletic department officials have had no public comments on the story.

OPINION: LSU Could Have Helped Derrius Guice

The SMU campus and athletic department officials who undoubtedly knew about the alleged incident involving Rice while at SMU may have thought they were helping Rice, if they indeed did cover up his actions to protect the program and help his future.

This is often what schools and sometimes local police departments do when a star athlete gets in trouble.

"We don't want to hurt his future," they'll say.

But they instead do hurt his future by not making him see the error of his ways in the present.

Baylor's cover-up of a major sexual assault scandal with the football program led to coach Art Briles getting fired in 2016.

There was a cover-up at LSU concerning star running back Derrius Guice from 2015-18. LSU officials looked the other way from sexual assault accusations against Guice. And Guice's past came back to ruin his NFL career after being picked - also in the second round by Washington - after a first-round career at LSU. Like Rice before the 2023 draft, there were rumors swirling and mysterious information flowing about Guice before the 2018 draft. Guice went 59th to Washington. 

Guice is to blame for his failed NFL career, but so in part is LSU.

Rice's past has apparently returned. And he could now be in more trouble than he ever would have been at SMU.

This is his fault, but it may be partly SMU's as well.