Meathead Of The Month?

Sports entities and many publications that focus on sports like to issue awards.  Some are very specific and narrow – – such as the Heisman Trophy given to THE best college football player of the year.  Others are such qualified awards as to make one glance at the announcement and move on quickly – – such as the “Best AFC Offensive Player of the Week Who Wears an Odd Numbered Jersey”.  [Aside:  The Issuers of this award would need to have world-class mathematicians on hand to adjudicate if the number ZERO is odd or even.  Just in case …]

I would like to propose today the winner of the “Meathead of the Month” award for his accumulated meatheadedness over the past couple of months.  He is too young to call it a “Lifetime Achievement Award”, but it is possible that he has demonstrated a lifetime of meatheadedness for your typical sports fan.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

• Rashee Rice – – WR, Kansas City Chiefs

Let me get some good stuff about M. Rice on the table here:

• In his rookie year with the Chiefs, Rice – – a second round pick in 2023 – – emerged as one of the best WRs on the team who made some big plays for the Chiefs in the latter parts of 2023.
• He caught 79 passes last year accounting for 938 yards (11.9 yards per catch) and 7 TDs.

Everything was cool until late March when Rice and friends were allegedly racing on some Dallas streets and got into a car crash.  Not a big deal – – until you consider that Rice was driving a rented Lamborghini allegedly traveling at 119 mph and to put a cherry on top of that silliness, he and some of his buds – – allegedly again – – simply walked away from the scene of the accident.  I cannot find any reporting related to the authorities charging him and others with “leaving the scene”, so all of this is still up in the air.

Rice seemed to respond to this situation like an adult; he said he would make everyone involved here whole which sounds like the antithesis of a Meathead.  A couple of civil lawsuits have been filed based on that incident probably to hold him to his word of making everyone whole.  And while he still faces multiple driving charges stemming from this silliness, he is “out and about” on a $40,000 bond.

The “apparent adult” that I alluded to above seems to have been at home and napping while Rice was out and about with some friends earlier this week.  Sometime after midnight at a “high-end nightclub” in Miami, Rice got into a confrontation with a photographer and Rice allegedly struck the photographer causing injuries to the photographer’s face which required treatment at a Miami hospital.   Not cool and definitely not smart …

It seems to me like an open and shut case that Rashee Rice violated the NFL’s tidy Personal Conduct Policy meaning he is open to a suspension in the tribunal of Roger Goodell.  On top of the various reckless vehicle charges and possibly leaving the scene of an accident you may now add charges just for good measure which could involve jail time; Rice is now potentially involved in an assault/battery situation which can involve time in the hoosegow.

Here is an indicator of how good the Chiefs think Rice can become:

• The Chiefs have not suspended him or disciplined him in any way using the dodge that they want “the criminal system to run its course.”
• If Rice were a practice squad player who coaches thought might some day be a fourth WR on the team, he would have been cut weeks ago.

I give you Rashee Rice – – Meathead of the Month.

Switching gears …Every sports fan who tunes in to watch games on TV knows about the “Announcers’ Jinx”.  The most common occurrence is in basketball where Joe Flabeetz is about to shoot a free throw and the announcer says:

• Flabeetz is a 92% shooter from the line; he is 7 for 7 tonight and has made his last 19 straight free throw attempts.

At least half the time – – or so it seems – -, Joe Flabeetz will clank that free throw attempt as badly as a scrub on a 12-year-old recreation league player might.  Play-by-play guys and color analysts chortle over such a “Jinx” but fans know that it seems to be a real thing.

I bring this up because of a situation that took place on MLB Network earlier this week.  The Dodgers were taking on the Marlins; the Marlins stink and the Dodgers were starting their rookie sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto.  The MLB TV talking head, Greg Amsinger, said:

• There was a no-hitter alert in effect for the Dodgers/Marlins game even before the first pitch was thrown.

That “no-hitter alert” lasted exactly one pitch.  The Marlins’ leadoff hitter, Jazz Chisholm, swung at the first pitch and hit it over the wall in right-center field.  So, was that an “Announcer’s Jinx” or was that a “message from the baseball gods” to MLB TV pundits to cool their jets a bit?  You make the call…

Finally, in the TV sitcom, All In the Family, Archie Bunker called is son-in-law a meathead all the time and once offered this pearl of wisdom:

“I’d say that the Meathead probably got magnesia and forgot where his mouth was.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………