The car crash involving Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice has proven costly for one other participant.
Former SMU cornerback Theodore Knox, the driver of the Corvette that was racing Rice’s Lamborghini on a Dallas highway before their multi-car crash, was hit with a $2.88 million default judgement in a lawsuit from one of the crash victims, according to ESPN.
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Judge Kim Bailey Phipps reportedly ruled that Knox, who played with Rice at SMU, was “grossly negligent.” A default judgement means that Knox failed to respond to the lawsuit from victim Kathryn Kuykendall or appear in court. He was reportedly not present for the hearing and had no attorney listed in court records.
Per ESPN, the judgement was instead made via written documents and already-filed evidence, with the nine-figure sum covering punitive damages plus costs for medical expenses, lost earnings and non-economic damages. Kuykendall’s attorney did wish Knox well, though:
“We’ve asked the court to grant the default judgment because we’re ethically required to as a matter of diligence,” Marc Lenahan, Kuykendall’s attorney, told ESPN in a statement when the motion was initially filed. “Personally, it pleases us that Teddy [Knox] hasn’t made further mistakes that we’re aware of. If a team gives him a chance to prove that he’s walking the right path now, we’ll be rooting for him.”
Per ESPN, this is actually the third default judgement rendered against Knox, who has also been ordered to pay $1.99 million to Irina Gromova and $1.63 million to Edvard Petrovskiy in combined actual and punitive damages.
That adds up to $6.5 million in cases lost by default.
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The crash in question occurred in April 2024, with Rice and Knox still dealing with the repercussions.
Both players pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from the crash, with Knox receiving 30 days in jail and five years of probation for charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury.
Knox was also suspended by SMU and hasn’t played college football since. He is no longer on the team’s roster page.
Per ESPN, Rice, who pleaded guilty to similar charges and got a similar penalty, still has two other civil cases pending in Dallas County, one for the crash and other over domestic violence allegations from an ex-girlfriend.