Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played 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. For 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. 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". In 1999, The Sporting News listed Rice second behind Jim Brown on its list of "Football's 100 Greatest Players". 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.
Rice played college football for four seasons with the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils, setting several National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and team receiving records, including becoming the all-time leader in NCAA receiving touchdowns. He joined the 49ers after being selected with the 16th overall pick of the 1985 NFL draft. 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 six 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.
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. He briefly signed with the Broncos, retiring shortly before the start of the 2005 regular season.
Rice is the career leader in most major statistical categories for wide receivers, 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. 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.
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Early life
Jerry Lee Rice Sr. was born on October 13, 1962, in Starkville, Mississippi, and grew up in Crawford, Mississippi, the sixth of eight children. Crawford was a small town, having only 600 residents. Rice's father, Joe, was a brick mason who built houses by hand, while holding other jobs to provide for the family. Joe was described by Rice as "a tough man" and held him and his siblings to a strict lifestyle. Eddie B., Rice's mother, raised Rice while Joe was working, and after Rice left cleaned the houses of wealthy families. 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. He did not see bricklaying as being his future saying that "it taught me the meaning of hard work." The Rice family struggled financially, with Rice sometimes not having many pairs of clothing or having a "hearty meal on the table". Providing for his family, he and his brothers picked corn, cotton, carrots, and hay. Rice asserted that he was shy as a child and did not have many friends.
Rice attended B. L. Moor High School in Oktoc, Mississippi. Although he played mock games of basketball and football, Rice did not initially play sports for his high school. He enjoyed playing sandlot football and watching football on television. His mother forbade him to join the school's football team in his freshman year, as she thought that football was "too rough" for Rice. During Rice's sophomore year, the school's assistant principal caught him 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. 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."
Rice played multiple positions in high school, including running back, defensive back and tight end, but the position he was most skilled at was wide receiver. During the offseason before his junior year, he trained for the team by running the several miles back to his home as he did not have a ride. Rice had a breakout junior season, primarily playing wide receiver and defensive back. In his senior year, Rice was a Mississippi All-State selection at wide receiver.
Due to the small size of Moor, few of his statistics were officially recorded. 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. He and Moor's starting quarterback, Willie Gillespie, were very dependable, enough for them to be nicknamed Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry. In addition to football, Rice also played basketball as a forward and participated on the track and field team, competing in the high jump.
College career
Rice attended Mississippi Valley State University from 1981 to 1984. 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. Rice studied receiving techniques from Gloster Richardson, stating: "I soaked up everything I could."
In 1981, Rice's freshman season, he caught 30 passes for 428 yards and two touchdowns. In 1982, his sophomore year, Rice played his first season with freshman quarterback Willie Totten. They became friends and practiced into the evening. 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. Rice caught 66 passes for 1,133 yards and seven touchdowns. Together, Totten and Rice became known as "The Satellite Express." 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". 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. 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.
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. 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. During the game against Kentucky State, Rice caught twelve passes and scored three touchdowns in a single quarter. 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. The 1984 Delta Devils averaged more than 60 points per game. Rice was named to the Division I-AA All-American team and finished ninth in Heisman Trophy balloting in 1984.
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. 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. 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. By the end of his college career, he had broken 18 NCAA records. In 1999, the school renamed its football stadium from Magnolia Stadium to Rice–Totten Stadium in honor of the players. 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.
Professional career
San Francisco 49ers (1985–2000)
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. Both the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers showed interest in him. 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. 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".
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. Walsh "saw the deep-threat the 49ers lacked ... a player who could break open a game with one play." The 49ers traded their first, second, and third-round picks for the New England Patriots' first and third-round picks. The 49ers had the No. 16 selection overall and drafted Rice before the Cowboys had a chance. 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." 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. In training camp, Rice had to compete with 49ers Dwight Clark and Freddie Solomon for roster spots at the wide receiver position.
In July 1985, Rice was one of 21 rookie players who had not yet signed a contract. Rice signed a rookie contract for five years that paid him $377,000 per year. He wrote that during training camp, he was nicknamed "Fifi" because of his haircut, but he was praised by his teammates for his work ethic. It was with the 49ers where Rice switched from his college number, 88 (which was already taken by teammate Freddie Solomon), to his now famous #80 (in honor of his idol, Steve Largent). Rice made his NFL debut in the 49ers' regular season opener against the Minnesota Vikings. He had four receptions for 67 yards in the 28–21 loss. Rice scored his first receiving touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons on a 25-yard reception from Joe Montana in Week 5. Rice had a breakout game with ten receptions for a then franchise-record 241 yards against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 13, his first over 100 receiving yards, with San Francisco losing 27–20. For his game against the Rams, Rice earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week. After a seven reception, 111-yard performance in a 31–16 victory in the regular season finale against the Dallas Cowboys, while scoring a rushing touchdown, CBS announcer Pat Summerall stated that "When this guy [Rice] is finished [retires], he'll be considered one of the greatest wide receivers to ever play this game." He recorded 49 catches, for 927 yards, and three receiving touchdowns, averaging 18.9 yards per catch in his rookie season, and started four out of sixteen possible games. United Press International (UPI) named Rice the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year, and he was selected to the PFWA All-Rookie Team. Nevertheless, Rice struggled, dropping numerous passes that season. In a game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Rice dropped two wide-open passes and later fumbled on an 8-yard pass that was intended to boost Rice's confidence. Rice said that his poor play may have been impacted by his increased wealth and the distractions that came with it. The 49ers finished the regular season with a 10–6 record and made the postseason. During the Wild Card Round against the New York Giants, Rice had four receptions for 44 yards in the 17–3 loss.
Later career (2001–2005)
With the emergence of Terrell Owens in San Francisco and because of their desire to rebuild the team and clear salary, Rice was released by the 49ers in June 2001 and signed with the Oakland Raiders for a four-year, $7.8 million contract. He joined a Raiders team coming off a loss in the playoffs to form one of the oldest receiver duos with Tim Brown (age 35). During the season, he had an eight reception, 131-yard performance with three touchdowns against the Chargers, and a nine reception, 108-yard performance against the Broncos. Rice caught 83 passes for 1,139 yards and nine touchdowns for the year. Oakland finished the season with a 10–6 record and made the postseason. The Raiders played the New York Jets in the Wild Card Round, winning 38–24, with Rice having nine receptions for 183 yards and a touchdown. In the Divisional Round, the Raiders faced Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. In what was later called the "Tuck Rule Game", the Raiders lost in overtime 16–13, after officials reviewed an apparent Brady fumble, overturning the call on the field to be an incomplete pass, allowing the Patriots to kick the game-tying field goal, all in a severe snowstorm.
In 2002, Rice caught 92 passes for 1,211 yards and seven touchdowns, while being named to his 13th Pro Bowl team, and to the Second-team All-Pro team. Rice's teammate, Raiders starting quarterback Rich Gannon, was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player for the 2002 season. Against the Tennessee Titans, where Rice had seven receptions for 144 yards and a touchdown, he surpassed Walter Payton as the all-time leader in scrimmage yards, with 21,281 scrimmage yards. He scored his 200th career touchdown against the Broncos. Oakland finished the season with an 11–5 record and made the postseason. They won in the Divisional Round against the Jets, 30–10. Rice had a receiving touchdown in the win. The team won in the AFC Championship against the Tennessee Titans, 41–24, making it to the Super Bowl. There, against the Buccaneers, coached by former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, they were defeated 21–48, with Gannon throwing five interceptions, including three for touchdowns, and Rice having five receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown. Up to this point, Rice had been undefeated in the Super Bowl, having already won three with San Francisco. The fact that he lost a Super Bowl overwhelmed him to the point that he cried in his hotel room after the game.
In Week 4 of the 2003 season, Rice had seven receptions for 126 receiving yards in the 34–31 victory of the San Diego Chargers. In Week 16, against the Green Bay Packers, he had ten receptions for 159 receiving yards in the 41–7 loss. Overall, in the 2003 season, Rice caught 63 passes for 869 yards; he didn't score a touchdown until the 12th game of the season, scoring only two through the whole year. Oakland as a team regressed from their 11–5 record in 2002 to a 4–12 record in 2003, leading to the firing of head coach Bill Callahan. That led Rice to be frustrated about his role with the team.
Retirement
On September 5, 2005, Rice announced his retirement after 20 seasons. Because he never played for Denver outside of the preseason, Rice was only allowed his guaranteed money for a grand total of $25,000. In August 2006, the 49ers announced that Rice would sign a contract with them, allowing him to retire as a member of the team where his NFL career began. On August 24, 2006, he officially retired as a 49er, signing a one-day contract for $1,985,806.49. The number represented the year Rice was drafted (1985), his No. 80, the year he retired (2006), and the 49ers (49). The figure was ceremonial, and Rice received no money. A halftime ceremony honored him during the 49ers' match-up with the Seattle Seahawks on November 19, 2006.
Legacy
Rice holds numerous NFL receiving records. His 197 career touchdown receptions are 41 scores more than the second place of 156 touchdown receptions by Randy Moss; his 208 total touchdowns (197 receiving, ten rushing, and one fumble recovery) are 33 scores ahead of Emmitt Smith's second-place total of 175. His 22,895 career receiving yards are 5,403 yards ahead of the second-place Larry Fitzgerald. His 1,256 career points scored make him the highest-scoring non-kicker in NFL history. Many of these records are considered by sports analysts to be unbreakable. During a career spanning two decades, Rice averaged 75.6 receiving yards per game. He received MVP votes in six out of his 20 seasons, finishing as the runner-up twice in 1987 and 1995. He won two NFL Offensive Player of The Year Awards, and a Bert Bell Award in 1987.
Rice is remembered as one of the best clutch players in football history, often making game-winning catches throughout his career. Rice also was noted as an effective blocking receiver. Rice's "famous" catching ability, sometimes attributed to him having to catch bricks when working with his father during his childhood, led him to 1,549 career receptions, 117 ahead of the second-place Fitzgerald.
Despite being keen about his public image early in his career, Rice is remembered for his work ethic and dedication. He still cared extensively about his physical appearance, often tailoring his uniform and jersey, and combed his hair before putting on his helmet; his philosophy was: "If you look good, feel good, you'll play good", as described by Shawn Rogers, one of his friends. In his 20 NFL seasons, Rice missed only 17 regular season games, 14 of them in the 1997 season and the other three in the strike-shortened season of 1987; his 303 games are the most by an NFL wide receiver by a wide margin. In addition to staying on the field, his work ethic showed in his dedication to conditioning and running precise routes, with coach Dennis Green calling him "the best route runner I've ever seen". One of the best-known examples of his dedication and ethic was "The Hill," a steep hill in Edgewood County Park & Natural Preserve which is 2.5 miles (4 km) long. Rice sprinted across the hill every day during the offseason to improve his abilities.
In 1999, Rice was ranked No. 2 on the Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, behind only Jim Brown, and was 35 places ahead of the next-highest-ranked player then active, Deion Sanders. In 2000, Rice won the ESPY Award for Pro Football Player of the Decade for the 1990s. On November 4, 2010, he was ranked No. 1 on The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players. In 2011, The Sports Network awarded the inaugural Jerry Rice Award, to be given each year to the most outstanding freshman Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) player. The inaugural winner was Towson running back Terrance West.
NFL career statistics
Career highlights
Awards and honors
Throughout his collegiate and professional career, Rice has won the following awards and honors:
NFL
3× Super Bowl champion (XXIII, XXIV, XXIX)
Super Bowl MVP (XXIII)
PFWA NFL MVP (1987)
Jim Thorpe Trophy (1987)
2× Sporting News NFL MVP (1987, 1990)
Bert Bell Award (1987)
2× NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1987, 1993)
Pro Bowl Game MVP (1996)
13× Pro Bowl (1986–1996, 1998, 2002)
10× First Team All-Pro (1986–1990, 1992–1996)
Second Team All-Pro (2002)
10× PFWA All-NFL Team (1986–1990, 1992–1996)
5× NEA First Team All-Pro (1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992)
2× NEA Second Team All-Pro (1988, 1991)
11× Sporting News All-Pro Team (1986–1996)
6× PFW All-Pro Team (1986–1991)
PFWA All-Rookie Team (1985)
6× NFL receiving yards leader (1986, 1989, 1990, 1993–1995)
2× NFL receptions leader (1990, 1996)
NFL records
As of the end of the 2015 NFL season, Rice holds the following league records:
Most career receiving yards: 22,895
Most career receptions: 1,549
Most career touchdown receptions: 197
Most career yards from scrimmage: 23,540 (22,895 receiving, 645 rushing)
Most career touchdowns from scrimmage: 207 (197 receiving, 10 rushing)
Most career all purpose yards: 23,546 (22,895 receiving, 645 rushing, 6 kick returns)
Most career all purpose touchdowns: 208 (197 receiving, 10 rushing, 1 fumble recovery)
Most career postseason receiving yards: 2,245
Most career postseason touchdown receptions: 22
Most career Super Bowl receiving yards: 589
Most career Super Bowl receptions: 33
Most career Super Bowl touchdown receptions: 8
Most career Super Bowl points scored: 48
Most receiving yards in one Super Bowl: 215
Most receiving touchdowns in one Super Bowl: 3
Most games of 100 or more receiving yards: 76
Most consecutive games with a reception: 274
Personal life
Rice married Jacqueline "Jackie" Bernice Mitchell on September 8, 1987. Jacqueline Rice filed for divorce in June 2007, which became final in late December 2009. They have three children, Jaqui Bonet (born 1987), Jerry Rice Jr. (born 1991), and Jada Symone (born 1996). Jerry Jr., who attended high school at Menlo School in Atherton, California, graduated in 2009. He was a walk-on at UCLA and redshirted his first season. After three seasons and limited playing time, Jerry Jr. graduated from UCLA and transferred to UNLV, and was eligible to play immediately. He played wide receiver for the Rebels and participated in a 49ers local pro day before the 2014 NFL draft, but was not drafted. Jerry Rice has another son, Brenden Rice, who played football for the University of Colorado Boulder for two years. On January 1, 2022, it was announced that Brenden was transferring to the University of Southern California. As of October 21, 2019, Rice is married to Latisha Pelayo whom he had dated since 2008.
Rice is a Christian. He said he grew up as a Christian and still has the same faith from his youth.
After football
During the 2005–2006 broadcasting season, Rice competed in the second season of the reality competition show Dancing with the Stars. He paired with dancer Anna Trebunskaya, and they reached the final two before losing to singer Drew Lachey and his partner Cheryl Burke. In 2009, Rice portrayed Hal Gore in the film Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling. In the same year, he guest-starred as himself in the episode "Lyin' King" on the sitcom Rules of Engagement. Rice has co-authored two books about his life: Rice (with Michael Silver, published 1996, ISBN 0-312-14795-3) and Go Long: My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame (with Brian Curtis, published 2007, ISBN 0-345-49611-6). In 2019, he co-authored a book America's Game: The NFL at 100 (with Randy O. Williams, ISBN 978-0062692900), celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Football League. Rice and his dog, Nitus, were featured in Jerry Rice & Nitus' Dog Football, a video game for the Wii that was released on August 16, 2011. Rice served as an alumnus team captain for "Team Rice" during the 2014 and 2016 Pro Bowls. In 2022, Rice partnered with the American Red Cross to raise awareness about blood donations.
Rice has played golf for over 20 years and woke up early to play golf during his football career. He competed in the Fresh Express Classic at TPC Stonebrae on the Nationwide Tour on April 15–16, 2010, receiving a sponsor's exemption to play in the tournament. Rice missed the cut and finished one shot ahead of last place, 17-over and 151st among the 152 players who completed two rounds. He was a team captain on The Big Break Puerto Rico, where his team won.
After Colin Kaepernick announced that he would be kneeling during the national anthem during games, Rice criticized his actions and said on Twitter, "All lives matter. So much going on in this world today. Can we all just get along! Colin, I respect your stance but don't disrespect the Flag". Following criticism from other players and the public, Rice offered support to Kaepernick in bringing awareness for injustice.