A year ago, Rashee Rice was finishing his college season and getting ready to enter the NFL, not knowing what team he would be joining.
Now, Rice is on the biggest stage in Las Vegas vying for his first Super Bowl ring in his first season in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs. The wide receiver made a huge impact during his rookie season, catching 79 passes for 938 yards and seven touchdowns. What’s more impressive is that he led the team second in yards, with Travis Kelce topping the list.
Rice has also been impressive in his first postseason, catching 20 passes for 223 yards and one touchdown. Throughout the season, Rice and the other Chiefs’ receivers have been criticized for the dropped passes, but the rookie is blocking out the noise.
“I wasn’t too worried about what everybody else was talking about,” Rice said. “I show up every day to work so what they don’t see is what they don’t see but obviously they see it now so we’re not worried about that.”
Most rookies don’t have the luxury to play in the Super Bowl in their first season in the league, but knowing what he knows now, he can offer advice to others coming fresh out of college.
“For the rookies, I would say just don’t get overwhelmed,” Rice said. “Don’t let the football stuff overwhelm you. [You’ve] been doing football probably your whole life, and now you don’t have to go to class. You can just enjoy football, but you have still have meetings. You can look at that as class, so just focus on that.”
Rice has heard the talk about the Chiefs being underdogs, but he says that doesn’t faze him or the team.
“Anytime you call the Kansas City Chiefs underdogs, we take that to heart, obviously everybody knows what we’re capable of and what we do best but if you want to call us the underdogs we’ll be able to show up on game day,” Rice said.
