ShareThisBy JOHN CRUMPACKER
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
In 20 years as a pro football wide receiver, Jerry Rice used hands that once caught bricks from his father to catch more passes, for more yards and for more touchdowns than anyone in NFL history.
Now in retirement, at long last Rice will need those hands again on Sunday when he waves to fans at Candlestick during a halftime ceremony in which his career with the San Francisco 49ers will be celebrated, with his family and former teammates and coaches by his side.
"It's great because with the torch being passed to Terrell Owens and the way that went down, I felt it was a rush job," said Rice, who left the 49ers after the 2000 season, some would say unceremoniously. "I really didn't get to say goodbye to the fans in the right way."
With the passage of time, a football fan can appreciate all the more the scope of Rice's two-decade career as the gold standard for football players in general and wide receivers in particular. Here's his secret: work like a mule, run like a thoroughbred.
Standing apart from the current crop of divas and drama queens, Rice looks positively radiant for the purity of how he approached the game and how he played it.
"In a day and age when some receivers are getting their notoriety by being controversial, he was the opposite," said Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, Rice's offensive coordinator for some of those glory years with the 49ers. "He certainly let his play speak for itself. He was such a hard worker. I remember taking him out of some practices because I was afraid he'd run himself into the ground."
Turns out Rice had oodles of energy in reserve. Like many an active "senior," this 44-year-old is at least as busy in retirement as he was as a working stiff.
"He would be absolutely miserable if he weren't busy," said Sasha Taylor, Rice's personal assistant and manager. "He likes to work."
The kid from rural Mississippi is now a Bay Area sophisticate with two children in private schools and in demand for his voice, his smiling face and his backswing.
Rice has a gig on Sirius satellite radio three times a week and has made appearances on ABC's "American Inventor" and the CW channel's "The Game." In keeping with his true passion, Rice co-hosts a golf tournament with old pal Steve Young in Gilroy, Calif. He also has a book coming out Jan. 16.
Rice will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009, five years after he caught the last of his 1,549 receptions. It will be the most prestigious of the various halls of fame to come calling for Rice, including the College Football Hall of Fame this year.
While he played pro football longer than all but five players (George Blanda, Morten Andersen, Gary Anderson, Earl Morrall and Sean Landeta) and longer than any wide receiver, all that time slipped by as quickly as a pass through the fingers of Owens, his putative successor in San Francisco.
"Today, I can go to the track and do everything I used to do," he said. "You would think after a long career like that and the one major injury I had (a torn knee ligament and a fractured patella in 1997), I wouldn't be able to run as fast and jump as high, but I can. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones."
Hardly. Luck is finding a $20 bill on the sidewalk or hitting the lottery. Luck is not 208 career touchdowns or 23,540 total yards from scrimmage or five touchdown receptions in one game (with Atlanta's Charles Dimry in single coverage on every one of them; thanks, coach Jerry Glanville), among his various NFL records.
As a man in his 40s, Rice takes a dim view of the dramas and theatrics associated with those who play the position he played with dignity. While Owens chronologically followed Rice, he certainly did not succeed him in either stature or respect.
"When he was with the 49ers, when he had veterans around, guys he respected, he was different," Rice said. "What you're seeing today, it surprises me. Once all the veterans left, he felt, 'OK, it's my team. I can do what I want to do.' It started in Dallas when he ran onto the star. It continued in Philly with the soap opera.
"You have a player who's really good and you're willing to put up with it. It's the same scenario you have in Oakland with Randy Moss."
Rice does have his favorites at the wide receiver position, however. It's not all a freak show in gloved hands.
"You still have a couple guys out there like Marvin Harrison and Steve Smith," he said. "The majority of guys are trying to out-do each other. It's a new generation now."
And it makes one long for the old one, as exemplified by a kid who caught bricks from his father to toughen hands that became his instruments for greatness.
