If she did have an affair with Rice, he was a college student at the time, not a professional football player.
Glen Rice was never a professional football player.
This got me thinking about the timelines involved. According to Wikipedia, Glen Rice went to the University of Michigan from 1985 to 1989, playing for the Wolverines.
Sarah Heath, meanwhile, graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987 (the various colleges she went to since graduating high school in 1982 were all located in either Hawaii, Idaho, or Alaska). Her first job out of college was as a sportscaster with Anchorage.
She eloped with Todd Palin one year later in 1988.
So in 1987, both people involved were over thousands of miles apart at any given time.
/this salacious claim was debunked in 10 minutes