Jerry Rice
Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962)[8] is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for 20 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He won three Super Bowl titles with the San Francisco 49ers before two shorter stints at the end of his career with the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks. Nicknamed "World" because of his superb catching ability, his accomplishments and numerous records, Rice is widely regarded as the greatest wide receiver of all time and one of the greatest players in NFL history.[9][10][11] His biography on the official Pro Football Hall of Fame website names him "the most prolific wide receiver in NFL history with staggering career totals".[12] In 1999, The Sporting News listed Rice second behind Jim Brown on its list of "Football's 100 Greatest Players".[13] In 2010, he was chosen by NFL Network's NFL Films production The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players as the greatest player in NFL history.[14]
This article is about the Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver. For his son, also a receiver, see Jerry Rice Jr.No. 80
October 13, 1962
Starkville, Mississippi, U.S.
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
200 lb (91 kg)
Mississippi Valley State (1981–1984)
1985 / Round: 1 / Pick: 16
1,549
1,549
22,895
14.8
197
Rice played college football for four seasons with the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils, setting several NCAA and team receiving records, including becoming the all-time leader in NCAA receiving touchdowns. He joined the 49ers in 1985 after being drafted with the 16th overall pick. After a modest rookie season, Rice emerged in the following season as one of the best receivers in the league, leading the NFL in receiving yards and touchdowns, a feat he achieved four times. In 1987, Rice set the record for most receiving touchdowns in a season, with 22, in a twelve-game strike-shortened season. He won back-to-back championships in 1988 and 1989, and was the MVP of the former championship. Rice developed connections with quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young that are viewed as among the best in NFL history, helping him lead the league in both receiving yards and touchdowns six times, and in receptions twice.[15]
Going into the 1990s, Rice won a third Super Bowl in 1994, and a second Offensive Player of the Year Award. After recovering from a knee injury and his play regressing, San Francisco released him in June 2001, where the Raiders would sign him to a four-year deal. He continued to start for the team, and helped lead them to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII, where they were defeated by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, affecting Rice's previously unblemished Super Bowl record. Midway through 2004, the Raiders traded him to the Seahawks, where he spent his final season.[16][17] He briefly signed with the Broncos, retiring shortly before the start of the 2005 season.
Rice is the career leader in most major statistical categories for wide receivers,[18] including receptions, receiving touchdowns, receiving yards, scrimmage yards, and total touchdowns, holding the postseason records for these statistics, and once held the single-season records for yards and touchdowns. He scored more points than any other non-kicker in NFL history with 1,256.[19] Rice was selected to the Pro Bowl 13 times (1986–1996, 1998, 2002) and named All-Pro twelve times in his 20 NFL seasons, including ten First-team All-Pros, tied for the most by any player. Rice was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006. Rice was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, and in the same year was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. The NFL honored him as a member of the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team and the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team, as well as both the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team and NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Early life[edit]
Rice was born on October 13, 1962, in Starkville, Mississippi,[12] and lived in Crawford, Mississippi, the sixth of eight children.[20] Crawford was a small town, having only 600 residents.[21] Rice's father, Joe, was a brick mason who built houses by hand, while holding other jobs to provide for the family.[22] Joe was described by Rice as "a tough man" and held him and his siblings to a strict lifestyle.[23] Eddie B., Rice's mother, raised Rice while Joe was working, and after Rice left cleaned the houses of wealthy families.[24] Rice and his brothers often worked with their father building houses, catching bricks on top of scaffolds to make sure his father had bricks to lay.[23] He did not see bricklaying as his future, later saying that "it taught me the meaning of hard work."[25] The Rice family struggled financially, with Rice sometimes not having many pairs of clothing or having a "hearty meal on the table".[26] To provide for his family, he and his brothers picked corn, cotton, carrots, and hay.[27] Rice asserted that he was shy as a child, and had few friends.[28]
Rice attended B. L. Moor High School in Oktoc, Mississippi. Although he played mock games of basketball and football, Rice initially played no sports in high school.[29] He enjoyed playing sandlot football and watching football on television. His mother didn't allow him to join the school's football team in his freshman year, as she thought that football was "too rough" for Rice.[30] While a sophomore, the school's assistant principal caught Rice skipping class with a friend, causing him to panic and sprint away. After Rice fled, the principal was impressed with his speed, and informed the school's football coach, Charles Davis, who offered Rice a place on the team.[30] Initially unhappy about this, Rice's mother relented after realizing that "the more I fought it, the more determined he was, so I gave it up."[30] Rice played basketball as a forward and was on the track and field team, competing in the high jump.[31] Rice played multiple positions in high school, including running back, defensive back and tight end. The position he was most skilled at, however, was wide receiver.[21] During the off-season before his junior year, Rice increased his training; running several miles back to his house because he didn't have a ride.[32] Rice had a breakout junior season, primarily playing wide receiver and defensive back.[32]
Rice was a Mississippi All-State selection at wide receiver in his senior year. Due to the small size of Moor, few of his statistics were officially recorded.[25] According to sports journalist Glenn Dickey, Rice caught 50 receptions and 30 touchdowns as a senior, helping to lead the team to a 17–2 record over his final two seasons.[30][21] He and Moor's starting quarterback, Willie Gillespie, were very dependable, enough for them to be nicknamed Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry.[21] Rice initially wanted to go to Mississippi State University, but the team wasn't interested in Rice. Mississippi State was one of over 40 NCAA Division I-A schools that contacted him, but did not offer a scholarship.[33] He was drawn to Mississippi Valley State, in part because the school's coach, Archie Cooley, ran a pass-heavy offense—so much so that Cooley was nicknamed "The Gunslinger."[34] After Cooley watched him play in person and after he visited the school's campus, Rice committed to playing at Mississippi Valley State.[35]
College career[edit]
Rice attended Mississippi Valley State University from 1981 to 1984.[36] When Rice arrived at Mississippi Valley State, he attended summer school and freshman orientation before the regular season. Two of his former teammates from B.L. Moor were there as well, but both left before the start of training camp.[37] Rice studied receiving techniques from Gloster Richardson, stating: "I soaked up everything I could."[38]
In 1981, Rice's freshman season, he caught 30 passes for 428 yards and two touchdowns.[39] In 1982, Rice played his first season with freshman quarterback Willie Totten.[40] They became friends and practiced into the evening.[41] Under the direction of Cooley, Mississippi Valley State ran an "unusual" offense, playing four wide receivers who tended to line up on one side of the field.[42] Rice caught 66 passes for 1,133 yards and seven touchdowns as a sophomore that year.[43] Together, Totten and Rice became known as "The Satellite Express."[41] Success on the field did not put any money in his pocket, and many times he relied on friends for food, stating that the food given to him at Mississippi Valley "were not enough for a growing man".[44]
Rice had a record-setting 1983 campaign, including NCAA marks for receptions (102) and receiving yards (1,450). He was named a first-team Division I-AA All-American.[45] He set a single-game NCAA record with 24 receptions against Southern University. He acquired the nickname "World," because of his ability to seemingly catch anything thrown near him.[40]
After an August practice experiment, Cooley had Totten call all the plays at the line of scrimmage without a huddle, resulting in even more staggering offensive numbers.[42] Rice caught 17 receptions for 199 yards against Southern, 17 receptions for 294 yards, and five receiving touchdowns against Kentucky State, and 15 for 285 yards against Jackson State.[46][47] During the game against Kentucky State, Rice caught twelve passes and scored three touchdowns in a single quarter.[46] As a senior in 1984, he surpassed his own Division I-AA records for receiving yards (1,845), and receptions (112); his 27 touchdown receptions in the 1984 season set the NCAA record for every division.[40] The 1984 Delta Devils averaged more than 60 points per game.[48] Rice was named to the Division I-AA All-American team and finished ninth in Heisman Trophy balloting in 1984.[49][50]
In the Blue–Gray Classic all-star game played on Christmas Day, he earned MVP honors after four receptions for 101 yards and a 60-yard touchdown.[51] He finished his career with 301 catches for 4,693 yards and 50 touchdowns, (although some sources have his numbers as 310 receptions, 4,856 receiving yards, and 51 touchdowns); his NCAA record for total career touchdown receptions stood until 2006 when New Hampshire wide receiver David Ball recorded his 51st career receiving touchdown.[46] Rice's all-division NCAA record for total career receptions stood until 1999 when Scott Pingel of Division III Westminster logged his 302nd career reception.[52][53] By the end of his college career, he had broken 18 NCAA records.[23] Rice became a member of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity at the Delta Phi chapter.[54] In 1999, the school renamed its football stadium from Magnolia Stadium to Rice–Totten Stadium in honor of the players.[55] Rice was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006, and was in the inaugural class of the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.[56][57]
During this time, Rice met Jackie Mitchell at an MVS basketball game, while she was still in high school. Rice eventually approached her, and they dated casually before Rice met her mother.[58] Her mother was initially unhappy about Rice and preferred that Mitchell see another boy that lived in Greenville, Mississippi, but after meeting Rice in person she approved of him.[59]
Professional career[edit]
San Francisco 49ers (1985–2000)[edit]
Rice's record-breaking season at Mississippi Valley State caught the attention of NFL scouts. Sources vary on his 40-yard dash time, which was measured between 4.45 and 4.71 seconds.[60][61][62] Both the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers showed interest in him.[63] San Francisco had won two out of the previous four Super Bowls prior to the draft. Rice later wrote in Go Long! that he was unsure about what success he might have in the league, and that he would "often play head games" with himself; his backup plan if his football career didn't pan out was fixing electronics.[64] In a 2022 interview with Fox News Digital, Rice expressed his doubts about being drafted at the time: "To be honest, I never thought I was going to get drafted, I downplayed everything because I didn't want that disappointment of getting up here and then come down in disappointment if it didn't happen".[65]
In the first round of the 1985 NFL draft, Dallas had the No. 17 selection and San Francisco, as Super Bowl champion from the previous season, had the last. 49ers coach Bill Walsh sought Rice after seeing television highlights of his college performances.[21] Walsh "saw the deep-threat the 49ers lacked ... a player who could break open a game with one play."[25] The 49ers traded their first, second, and third-round picks for the New England Patriots' first and third-round picks.[66] The 49ers had the No. 16 selection overall and drafted Rice before the Cowboys had a chance.[67] Walsh described Rice as "a swift, smooth player who's got great instincts running with the ball, going to the ball and catching in a crowd."[66] Rice was selected by the United States Football League (USFL), where the Birmingham Stallions selected him with the No. 1 overall pick of the 1985 USFL Draft, but the league folded after its 1986 season.[68][69] In training camp, Rice had to compete with 49ers Dwight Clark and Freddie Solomon for roster spots at the wide receiver position.[70]