Jerry Rice

Football Player

• Born: October 13, 1962
• Birthplace: Starkville, Mississippi

Football player

Rice is widely considered the best wide receiver ever to have played in the NFL, and some consider him the best football player ever regardless of position. When he retired from the league in 2005 he held every notable receiver record.

Areas of achievement: Dance; Sports: football

Early Life

Jerry Lee Rice was born on October 13, 1962, in Starkville, Mississippi, and was one of eight children. He grew up in the nearby small town of Crawford. As a young man, he often ran in the Mississippi heat, building stamina that would benefit him later in his career. He also worked alongside his father, a bricklayer, and his brother Tom. From them he gained an impeccable work ethic and honed a different skill—catching. Rice learned to catch bricks that were thrown at him, something that required soft hands to absorb their blow.

Rice’s football talents were discovered in a rather unorthodox manner: During a confrontation with his high school principal, Rice ran away, hoping to avoid the issue. The principal noticed his speed and contacted the football coach after resolving the disciplinary matter. The move turned out to be a positive one for both the player and the school.

At B. L. Moor High School, Rice became a standout player and earned All-State honors. His accolades, however, failed to generate significant interest from any major college. Not even nearby Mississippi State University, a scant twenty miles from Crawford, showed interest in Rice. Instead, it was Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU), a college that competed in the lower-level Division I-AA, that offered Rice a scholarship. Rice’s older brother Tom, who played linebacker at Jackson State University, encouraged him to take the offer.

Life’s Work

In 1981 Rice began his career at MVSU in a wide-open offense that was one of the early incarnations of what came to be called the Spread. Rice benefited from this high-scoring offense, as he was able to assemble statistics that would rival those of any receiver at a major school. Rice was so prolific that he earned the nickname "World," because it was said that there was no pass thrown in the world that he could not catch.

During Rice's junior season in 1983 he set records for receptions and receiving yards, for which he earned first-team I-AA All-American honors. That season, he caught 24 passes against Southern University, setting the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record for most receptions in a game. In his senior season, he bested his own records for receptions and receiving yards and caught 27 touchdowns, setting an NCAA record for all levels that stood until 2006. His senior season earned him recognition as an All American and an invitation to the Blue Gray Classic, an all-star game for graduating players. In the game, Rice earned the most valuable player award.

Many National Football League (NFL) scouts had paid attention to Rice’s collegiate career but some were concerned with his time in the 40-yard dash, which seemed pedestrian by the league’s standards. Nevertheless, in the 1985 NFL draft the San Francisco 49ers traded their first two picks to move up to the sixteenth position to take Rice. The coach of the team, Bill Walsh, had seen highlights of Rice’s college games during the 1984 season.

Rice struggled at times with dropped passes during his rookie year but also registered some solid efforts. No game showed his potential better than one against the Los Angeles Rams in which he caught 10 passes for 241 yards. At the end of the season, he was named the National Football Conference (NFC) rookie of the year. Rice, however, thought that he could play better and that he had dropped too many balls while worrying about running routes.

Rice played better the following year, catching 86 passes and leading the league in both receiving yards and touchdowns. This season was the first of six in which he led the league in both of those categories. Along the way, he was named the Associated Press’s offensive player of the year in 1987.

The following year, Rice and the 49ers achieved the ultimate goal in the NFL, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl. While Rice played admirably in the NFC championship game, his performance in the Super Bowl was outstanding. He caught 11 passes for 215 yards and 1 touchdown and was named Super Bowl MVP.

In a testament to the strength of the 49ers, they succeeded in reaching a second consecutive Super Bowl and beat the Denver Broncos in a rout. Rice again was instrumental in the team’s success. The team returned to the playoffs the following year, 1990, but lost in the NFC championship game. San Francisco went through a period of transition during the early 1990s, with quarterback Joe Montana giving way to Steve Young. By 1994, the team again reached the pinnacle of the league, winning the 1995 Super Bowl against the San Diego Chargers. In the game, Rice had 10 receptions for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns even while playing with a separated shoulder.

Over the next few seasons, Rice remained one of the dominant receivers in the league, although his team was unable to return to the Super Bowl. In 1997, however, Rice tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, an injury that sidelined him for much of the year. Many believed that, with his relatively advanced age, he would not be able to return to his previous form. Indeed, his next two seasons were rather pedestrian by Rice’s standards.

In 2001 Rice left the 49ers and joined the Oakland Raiders, where he showed glimpses of his earlier form. He helped lead the Raiders to a Super Bowl appearance, where they lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rice was traded to the Seattle Seahawks during the 2004 season, but by then his production had diminished. He was released at the end of the year, and although he attended training camp with the Denver Broncos in 2005 he retired before the season began.

When Rice retired he held every important record associated with the wide receiver position. He had 1,549 career receptions, 197 touchdowns, and 22,895 receiving yards. The NFL named him to its 1980s and 1990s All-Decade teams and its 1994 75th Anniversary All-Time Team as well as its 2019 100 All-Time Team. After retiring, Rice competed on the television show Dancing with the Stars, finishing second in 2006. He also made appearances in other shows, films, and commercials. In 2010, his first year of eligibility, Rice was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the San Francisco 49ers retired his jersey number, 80. He generated some controversy in 2015 when he admitted to using stickum, a substance banned by the NFL in 1981 that can be applied to hands or gloves to make it easier to keep hold of the ball. Still, when it was announced in 2021 that the 49ers were planning to wear red jerseys that were a throwback to the 1994 team, he served as a model for the promotion of the uniform. Meanwhile, he had also published the book, authored with Randy O. Williams, America's Game: The NFL at 100 in 2019.

Significance

Rice combined a tireless work ethic with natural talent to become the greatest receiver in football history. A key member of three Super Bowl-winning San Francisco 49ers teams, Rice maintained a high level of play for more than a decade of his twenty-season career.

Bibliography

Jerry Rice. Jerry Rice, 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.

"Jerry Rice." Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2021, www.profootballhof.com/players/jerry-rice/. Accessed 20 July 2021.

Kendle, Jon. "Rice Evokes Memories While Modeling 49ers Throwback Jersey." Pro Football Hall of Fame, 6 July 2021, www.profootballhof.com/blogs/stories-from-the-pro-football-hall-of-fame-archives/rice-evokes-memories-while-modeling-49ers-throwback-jersey/. Accessed 20 July 2021.

Minutagilio, Bill. "A Spring in His Step…Again." The Sporting News 223, no. 27 (September 13, 1999): 22-27. Print.

Rice, Jerry, and Brian Curtis. Go Long! My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame. New York: Ballantine, 2007. Print.

Rice, Jerry, and Michael Silver. Rice. New York: St. Martin’s, 1996. Print.