Jerry Rice Still Shines as He Prepares to Enter Hall of Fame

Jerry Rice is known by some as the greatest football player of all time. He is a titan of the game in every sense of the word.

The 47-year-old Rice owns just about every record for wide receivers, despite not being the fastest, biggest or even the most athletic. Regardless of having broken countless records in college, teams shied away from him on draft day 1985 because he reportedly ran a slow 4.71 40-yard dash, and the small town kid out of Mississippi Valley State slipped to San Francisco at No. 16. Today, 25 years later, he is gearing up for the greatest and sacred honor of all, his induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Dressed in a beautiful navy suit, stylish open shirt, black and white Nike shoes and his trademark hoop earrings, Rice is the epitome of cool, reflecting his sheer effervescence right back at you. His agent refers to him as "smooth," and it seems appropriate.

Upon first glance, Rice isn't particularly big, but his presence commands the entire room. His handshake does too. Rice's hands were made to catch footballs. You can't help but feel the grooves and massive size of them when you meet for the first time. He wears one of his three Super Bowl rings proudly but not arrogantly, in only a way he could.

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"I knew I could catch a football. That was not the problem. It was just getting comfortable with the system, the big book that they handed me, and just trying to learn all this knowledge."
-- Jerry Rice, on Dropping Passes Early on in His Career Still lean and cut as ever, Rice talks about how he "loves to work out," and guesses he's run 25 miles already this week (it's only Tuesday).

"Just the desire to stay active and in shape. It's a way of life for me," Rice says.

He even still runs "the hill" that made him infamous as a workout machine willing to do anything to get that extra edge.

With a stack of 100 footballs to sign for Procter & Gamble in a cramped New York City office room, it becomes evident that Rice has clearly multitasked like this before, carefully applying the black Sharpie pen to each football while maintaining a perfectly steady conversation. In between a brief segment on the Jim Rome show and a 30-minute interview with the NFL Network, he answers my questions with the same swiftness and humility we can't help but associate Jerry Rice with.

During his tenure with the 49ers, Rice played with two of the best signal callers of any era, but there was a big learning curve from one to the other.

"I think both (Joe Montana and Steve Young) are very competitive and they're winners. ... The different spin on the ball, that was very difficult to adjust to with Steve, and also he was known as more of a running quarterback. The latter part of his career he wanted to become more as a pocket passer, but both guys were very talented, and they knew how to win football games."

And what about the dropped passes early on in his career?

"I knew I could catch a football," Rice says. "That was not the problem. It was just getting comfortable with the system, the big book that they handed me, and just trying to learn all this knowledge ... Bill Walsh he was a genius. He knew how to motivate his players and he wanted to win."

And it's no surprise that Rice gained his traction in the league following the style of one of his favorite players, fellow Hall of Fame wide receiver, Steve Largent. "I emulated (him)," Rice says. "(He was) great and I liked to watch (him) play." Like Rice, Largent wasn't a guy with blazing speed or incredible leaping ability, but also like Rice, he was a meticulous route runner with unmistakably good hands.

Even with the simplest of tasks, Rice applies the same amount of precision and expertise he did when he played. This is not merely an athlete, but rather, the consummate professional. The way he glided on the football field, the precision in which he ran his routes, he is the same way in person. As someone who never once held out of training camp, Rice spoke about disgruntled Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis as well as the overweight and seemingly mindless Albert Haynesworth.

"I probably would have done it a little bit different," Rice says in reference to Revis. "I would have been in camp. I would have preferred to be in there with my teammates working hard, getting ready for the season."

As for Haynesworth, Rice admits he "is a little disappointed that (the Redskins) paid this guy so much money and he can't even pass this test. So it shows that he came into camp and he was not ready to go. I question his dedication to the game. It's a situation that has to be addressed and I think he has the right coach with Mike Shanahan, he's not gonna tolerate it."

Even with his demeanor, Rice is the classic gentlemen. If you didn't know who he was, you wouldn't have a clue that he was the best ever to play his position. "I never take anything for granted," he says later, via email. "So even leading up to the announcement of the Hall of Fame inductees at this year's Super Bowl, I wasn't sure my name would be called. I was surprised when they announced my name as a 2010 inductee."

Yeah, he's just a little bit humble. The man with perhaps the most impressive collaboration of catches, the man who scored touchdowns as easily as we drink water, and the man who reached the pinnacle of sport for over a decade, still remains humble to this day.

But don't confuse his humility with his desire to win. Because he will be the first to tell you different.

Despite being away from the game six years now, Rice remains as competitive as ever. He still thinks he could play in the NFL, but to supplant his competitive fire, he has taken up the Nationwide Golf Tour instead, you know that whole story of one pro sport to another. While his short resume includes shooting a 92 and being disqualified for his caddie's mistake, the confident Rice believes he can make a run at golf too. He has said he may be finished playing on the tour, but this isn't a guy synonymous with quitting.

"If I wanna try to compete with those guys, I have to practice every day," he says. "Everything that I put into football, I'll have to do the same thing with golf. Right now golf motivates me. I think if put my mind to it and I devote myself, I think I can compete."

Sounds familiar, right?