Nick Wright, Rashee Rice, Mike Florio. Edit via Liam McGuire. Nick Wright, Rashee Rice, Mike Florio. Edit via Liam McGuire.
By Matt Yoder on

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice will be available for the first four weeks of the NFL season, and it’s causing a rift between Mike Florio and Nick Wright.

On Thursday night, Florio published a piece at Pro Football Talk wondering aloud why Rice isn’t being suspended for the start of the 2025 campaign given he pleaded guilty on July 17 for a 2024 street racing crash that caused injuries. Rice was sentenced to 30 days in jail. However, his NFL disciplinary hearing isn’t scheduled until September 30, where any league discipline will be decided.

Florio compares that situation to Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison, who pleaded guilty to DUI on the same date yet finds himself suspended for the first three games of the season.

The PFT scribe quotes an anonymous source saying, ““Maybe I’m a conspiracy theorist, but this is odd.”

Florio’s piece immediately made waves on social media, with some skeptical of the premise and others pushing back. That included First Things First star and Chiefs superfan Nick Wright.

Wright ridiculed the notion that the league was intentionally delaying Rice’s punishment because it was more advantageous to the national television interests of the NFL, saying “I’m going to lose my mind.”

He then addressed Florio directly for writing the piece in the first place, arguing that Rice and Addison were being disciplined under separate NFL policies and saying, “I’ve known Mike for nearly 20 years & I do consider him a friend. But this should be so far beneath him.”

Mike Florio then responded to Wright’s post on X by saying that the Chiefs loyalist should have reached out to him privately to share his concerns if he was indeed a friend.

Not to be left out of any good sports media feud, Pablo Torre then offered both an invite to settle their differences on his podcast.

There is a heightened sensitivity around the NFL potentially favoring the Chiefs with all the weird stuff that happened last season around the team’s games and officiating decisions. But given the Chiefs have been the main character in the NFL for the last three years, it would be impossible to find a place in the schedule that doesn’t feature them playing high profile games. In fact, if Rice’s suspension is delayed, he could even miss a pivotal showdown with the Buffalo Bills.

Nick Wright has been relentless in battling any notion that there is some wider conspiracy to benefit the Chiefs. Although it should have been put to rest after the Eagles destroyed them in the Super Bowl, it may continue to be a storyline throughout this season.

Thankfully, the story does have a happy ending as Florio and Wright were indeed able to connect and resolve their differences of opinion over the story before it reached the official designation of a “sports media feud.”

Thankfully cooler heads prevailed between Nick Wright and Mike Florio. The timing of a Rashee Rice suspension probably isn’t worth jeopardizing any real life relationships.

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