Imagine having to toil in obscurity.
It wouldn”t matter if you had the fastest feet, the stickiest hands, or the steadiest demeanor. The only ones your talents would delight would be family and friends and, possibly, a lucky fan who happened by the stadium where you played.
But day after day you worked at your craft, adding to your speed by chasing horses, catching bricks, and using the fact that you lived in the small town of Crawford as motivation.
All of those things combined to make Jerry Rice the greatest wide receiver to play professional football.
Rice won”t claim that title. He is content with a legacy that includes three Super Bowl rings and 13 Pro Bowl honors and a career that ended with the most catches (1,549) and the most receiving yards (22,895) by one man.
On Saturday, Rice”s exploits — and, possibly, his place as the greatest — will be cemented when he will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
For Rice, who was born Oct. 13, 1962, in Starkville, the honor is the culmination of years of playing a sport he loved.
“I never really thought about it,” said Rice, who will be the 21st modern-era wide receiver to earn a bronze bust in the Hall of Fame. “I am very honored and humbled. I have to catch myself because this small boy from B.L. Moor High School goes off to college to Mississippi Valley State and then gets a chance to play for the San Francisco 49ers. I played for the greatest owner, Eddie DeBartolo, the greatest coach, Bill Walsh, and the greatest team. Now I get a chance to go into another class.”
DeBartolo will serve as Rice”s presenter. He will re-introduce a man who redefined the position of wide receiver.
Younger fans might better know Rice as a contestant on the television show “Dancing With the Stars” in 2006. Rice and his partner, Anna Trebunskaya, finished second to Drew Lachey, a former member of the pop music band 98 Degrees, and Cheryl Burke.
But Rice had staked his claim to greatness on the football field long before that. He led the NFL in receiving yards and touchdown receptions six times, had the most 1,000-yard receiving seasons (14), and had a record 208 total touchdowns and 23,546 combined net yards.
Not bad for a wide receiver who couldn”t get any of the major colleges at the time to come to watch him play.
Mississippi State and Jackson State ran the wishbone offense at the time, so Rice knew he had to find a school that threw the ball “90 percent” of the time.
Mississippi Valley State turned out to be the perfect fit.
Led by Archie Cooley, a man who Rice said “wore a cowboy hat and always wanted to go for the jugular,” Rice gained fame in part thanks to his pairing with quarterback Willie Totten.
“He didn”t want to fail at anything,” Totten said. “He always wanted to be the best. Remembering how he prepared in college and just talking to him after he got into the NFL, that desire went to another level in terms of not wanting to fail.”
Totten said that drive fueled Rice and helped him overcome the fact that few college coaches gave him a chance. At MVSU, they turned that motivation against opponents. Rice finished his MVSU career with a plethora of all-time records for a game, a season, and a career, including catches in a game (24), most touchdowns in a game (five), and most TDs in a season (28).
Totten still holds the school records for TDs in a game (nine) and a season (58) in 1984. He reached those heights as a junior when Rice was a senior.
Like all good pairings, Rice and Totten worked together and developed an uncanny knack for big-play potential.
“For some reason it just clicked and it just kind of took off like a wild fire,” Totten said. “We got to the point where we could know each other”s movement and we had little signals and he knew exactly what I wanted to do and I knew exactly what he wanted to do. That made it kind of special to us.
“Jerry used to come back to the huddle and tell me, ”Just throw it and I will go get it.” We developed that trust in each other that regardless of how low or how high or how far the pass was he was going to catch the football. (Our relationship) went to another level (in 1984).”
The San Francisco 49ers believed Rice could be a game-breaker at the next level, too, so they used the 16th pick in the first round of the 1985 draft to select Rice.
Things started slowly. Rice admits he had the “deer in the headlights” look when he saw greats like Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott in the 49ers” locker room.
“I had to get comfortable with that and learn the system,” Rice said. “It didn”t help that I was dropping balls. Everyone thought no way is this the guy they drafted in the first round..”
But Rice fought through the adversity. He failed to catch more than four balls through the first 13 weeks of the 1985 season before making 10 catches for 241 yards and a touchdown in a 27-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in week 14. He finished the season with 49 catches for 927 yards and three TDs.
From there, Rice was on his way. In 1986, he nearly doubled the production from his rookie season, hauling in 86 balls for 1,570 yards and 15 TDs.
“I never gave in to the situation and thought I have arrived,” Rice said. “I always wanted to come back the next season and do better.” As a result, Rice was named first-team All-Pro 11 consecutive seasons, and voted to 13 Pro Bowls. He also was a member of the NFL”s All-Decade Teams of the 1980s and the 1990s and the league”s 75th Anniversary Team.
Totten, who was a fraternity brother of Rice”s, did a lot of things with Rice and saw up close his desire to be the best.
“I think Jerry was more possessed, so to speak,” Totten said. “We would say, ”Come on, let”s go and do this,” but he still had that desire to catch balls. As long as someone was throwing balls to him he would stay out there all day and catch passes. The other receivers would eventually stop, but as long as somebody was throwing to him he wouldn”t stop.”
Rice said his father, Joe Nathan, who was a mason, helped forge that attitude. He used to work with his father and catch bricks while standing on a scaffold 20 feet off the ground. His father”s example helped build toughness. The work he did helped mold the soft hands and the killer instinct.
“My father, he always there,” Rice said. “He was a very hard man, but you knew he really loved you.”
Rice used his downtime to complement the skills he honed working. He said spent numerous hours growing up chasing wild horses, particularly a beautiful black stallion. If he was quick enough to catch the horse, he would be able to ride him all day.
Rice used the smarts that would serve him well on the football field to figure out where the horses would go to save him some time and energy.
Rice didn”t know it at the time, but he couldn”t have picked a better way to prepare for life in the NFL.
“I tell kids today do not let any obstacle stand in your way and if you want to achieve something go for it,” Rice said. “I am living proof where I came from. I didn”t give up. I wanted to be the best football player I could be, and I was able to achieve that.
“I never look at being the greatest receiver ever. When I hear that it scares me. I never looked at it that way. I played the game and got enjoyment out of it.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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