Of all the current 0-2 teams in the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs might be the most surprising.

Part of the reason the Chiefs have started the 2025 season winless is that they don’t have enough dynamic weapons. Third-year receiver Rashee Rice would undoubtedly help in this regard, but he’s currently serving a six-game suspension for his role in a March 2024 high-speed car crash that involved six cars and sent two people to the hospital with serious injuries. Rice pleaded guilty to two third-degree felony charges related to the incident, reached a $1 million settlement with two of the crash victims, and might still face further legal issues.

But ask some of the Chiefs’ players, including future Hall of Famer Travis Kelce, and it doesn’t sound like they believe Rice did anything wrong. That’s, at least, according to the “Free 4” shirts they wore in reference to Rice’s jersey number before Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Given Rice’s role in a dangerous car crash, doing something like this lacks self-awareness at worst and is entirely tasteless at best:

What are the Chiefs’ players trying to say about Rice here?

Do they think he didn’t do anything wrong when he drove nearly 120 miles per hour on a Dallas highway? Do they think because he’s a wealthy athlete playing in the NFL that he’s above the law or punishment from the NFL somehow, even though, again, he quite literally pled guilty to felony charges? Is it perhaps a little bit of both?

Whatever motivated the Chiefs to wear these shirts, it’s an absolutely horrible look for what is the NFL’s gold standard franchise over the last half-decade. Though I should probably add the disclaimer that they are the gold standard under football terms and football terms alone if we’re going to include little stunts like this.

I’m not saying Rice is irredeemable, but he still committed a serious crime that he, at least in part, admitted to. And he should face accountability for it. Full stop.

For what it’s worth, head coach Andy Reid’s milquetoast statement about the shirts supporting one of his players who endangered innocent people doesn’t make anything better here:

The Chiefs simply need to do better. Plain and simple.