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.
He separately agreed to settle a civil case for $1,086,000, which included prejudgment interest and attorneys’ fees.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs are bracing for Rice to serve an NFL suspension, though the length and time remains uncertain. League spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement recently that the case "remains under review.”
“My legal team is handling all that,” Rice said. “All I can focus on is what I can control right now and that's me doing what I do.”
So far, the knee injury that robbed him of most of last season hasn't held him back.
After a standout rookie season, Rice caught 24 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns through his first three games last season. But in Week 4, after Patrick Mahomes had thrown an interception, the quarterback accidentally dived into Rice’s leg as they were trying to make the tackle, tearing the lateral collateral ligament in the wide receiver's knee.
Rice had surgery and was back for summer workouts, and he's been full-go throughout training camp.
“I feel 100%. I'm excited to be back out here with the guys,” Rice said. “Just kind of basically where I left off at. The only thing is get back on the field and continue to have fun doing what I do.”
The Chiefs had hoped that Rice would be a focal point of the offense last season in a wide receiver corps that included Marquise Brown and then-rookie Xavier Worthy. But that triumvirate never materialized, because “Hollywood” Brown was hurt on the first play of the preseason — he didn't return until the playoffs — and Rice ultimately joined him on injured reserve.
Now, the Chiefs have all three of them healthy, Worthy has a year of experience under him, and fourth-round draft pick Jalen Royals has turned some heads in training camp. Throw in veteran Juju Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton, who appears to be taking advantage of a fresh start in Kansas City, and the Chiefs are confident in their depth at the position.
Especially if Rice must serve a suspension during the upcoming season.
“I'm locked in. This is what I do,” Rice said. “This is my job. This is what I love to do. So even when I'm not able to be with the team, I'm going to be working hard to get back with them as soon as possible.”
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Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice takes a drink during Back Together Weekend at the team's NFL football training camp, Sunday, July 27, 2025, in St. Joseph, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice laughs with a teammate as he arrives at NFL football training camp Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in St. Joseph, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice signs autographs at NFL football training camp Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, in St. Joseph, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Young athletes in northern Ukraine spend their days cross-country skiing through a scorched forest, focused on their form — until a siren inevitably shatters the silence.
They respond swiftly but without panic, ditching their skis and following coaches to an underground bomb shelter.
It’s an ordinary training session at the complex that produced Ukraine’s first Olympic medalist.
Sleeping children no longer dream of Olympic glory in the facility's bombed-out dormitories, and unexploded ordnance has rendered nearby land off limits. But about 350 kids and teens — some of the nation's best young cross-country skiers and biathletes — still practice in fenced-off areas amid the sporadic buzz of drones passing overhead then explosions as they're shot down.
“We have adapted so well — even the children — that sometimes we don’t even react,” Mykola Vorchak, a 67-year-old coach, told The Associated Press in an interview on Oct. 31. “Although it goes against safety rules, the children have been hardened by the war. Adapting to this has changed them psychologically.”
War has taken a heavy toll on Ukrainian sport. Athletes were displaced or called up to fight. Soccer matches are often interrupted by air raid sirens so attendance is capped by bomb shelter capacity. Elite skaters, skiers and biathletes usually train abroad, with attacks and frequent blackouts shuttering local facilities.
But the government-run Sports Ski Base of the Olympic Reserve is open for cross-country skiing and biathlon, the event which combines skiing with shooting. The sprawling complex is on the outskirts of Chernihiv, a city two hours north of Kyiv along the path of destruction Russia's army left in its 2022 attempt to capture the capital. Chernihiv remains a regular target for air attacks aimed at the power grid and civilian infrastructure.
Several temporary structures at the sports center serve as changing rooms, toilets and coaches’ offices. Athletes train on snowy trails during the winter and, throughout the rest of the year, use roller skis on an asphalt track pocked by blast marks.
Biathletes aim laser rifles at electronic targets and, between shooting drills, sling skis over their shoulders and jog back to the start of the course, cheeks flushed from the cold.
Valentyna Tserbe-Nesina spent her adolescence at the Chernihiv center performing these same drills, and won bronze at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer. It was Ukraine’s first Olympic medal as an independent country.
“The conditions weren’t great, but we had nothing better. And for us, it was like a family — our own little home,” she said inside her apartment, its shelves and walls lined with medals, trophies and souvenirs from competitions around the world.
Tserbe-Nesina, 56, was shocked when she visited the complex in 2022. Shelling had torn through buildings, fire had consumed others. Shattered glass littered the floors of rooms where she and friends once excitedly checked taped-up results sheets.
“I went inside, up to my old room on the second floor. It was gone — no windows, nothing,” she said. “I recorded a video and found the trophies we had left at the base. They were completely burned.”
Tserbe-Nesina has been volunteering to organize funerals for fallen Ukrainian soldiers in her hometown while her husband, a retired military officer, returned to the front. They see each other about once a year, whenever his unit allows him brief leave.
One adult who in 2022 completed a tour in a territorial defense unit of Ukraine’s army sometimes trains today alongside the center's youngsters. Khrystyna Dmytrenko, 26, will represent her country at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that start Feb. 6.
“Sports can show that Ukraine is strong,” Dmytrenko said in an interview next to the shooting range. “We represent Ukraine on the international stage, letting other countries, athletes and nations see our unity, strength and determination.”
The International Olympic Committee imposed bans and restrictions on Russian athletes after the invasion of Ukraine, effectively extending earlier sanctions tied to state‑sponsored doping. But a small group of them will participate in the upcoming Winter Games.
After vetting to ensure no military affiliation, they must compete without displaying any national symbols — and only in non-team events. That means Russian and Ukrainian athletes could face one another in some skating and skiing events. Moscow’s appeal at the federation level to allow its biathletes to compete is pending.
That's why many Ukrainians view training for these events as an act of defiance. Former Olympic biathlete Nina Lemesh, 52, noted that some young Ukrainians who first picked up rifles and skis at the Chernihiv ski base during wartime have become international champions in their age groups.
“Fortunately, Ukrainians remain here. They always will,” she said, standing beside the destroyed dormitories. “This is the next generation of Olympians.”
AP writer Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv contributed to this report.
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathlete Khrystyna Dmytrenko poses for photos outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathletes Mykola Dorofeiev, 16, and Nazar Kravchenko, 12, left, train at the ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Biathlete Khrystyna Dmytrenko poses for photos inside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A young biathlete trains outside the destroyed ski base in Chernihiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
