Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Greatest of All Time Part II: Jerry Rice


             Over the next month or so, Mike and I will be writing a series called; “The Greatest of All Time.” In each piece we will profile the greatest athlete to play a certain sport or position. Mike wrote the first installment of this series on Babe Ruth which you can read here. The second part of the series will feature the greatest receiver in NFL history; Jerry Rice. (All stats courtesy of Profootballreference.com)
            The gap between Jerry Rice and the second best receiver of all time may be larger than in any other sport. Although most of Rice’s prime didn’t coincide with the so-called “passing era”, he still managed to have far and away the best receiving numbers in NFL history. He finished his career with 22,895 yards and 197 touchdowns and 1569 catches.
            To put his numbers in perspective, consider Terrell Owens is second all-time with 15,934 receiving yards. There are 6961 yards between Rice and the retired Owens or more than Dwight Clark, Kellen Winslow I or Cris Collinsworth gained in their entire careers. Rice has more career yards than Lance Alworth and Raymond Berry COMBINED, more catches than Michael Irvin and James Lofton combined and more touchdowns than Steve Largent and Isaac Bruce combined. By the way, all those guys besides Bruce are Hall of Famers.
            However all these ways of measuring his stats don’t do justice to the era he played in and what receiving numbers looked like before he entered the league. When he was a rookie in 1985, the all-time leader in receiving yards was Charlie Joiner with just over 12,000 yards. At the time there were only five players in NFL history with over 10,000 career yards. In fact, when Rice retired in 2004, Tim Brown and James Lofton were the only receivers within 9000 yards of Rice; more than all but 49 players have gained in NFL history. Lastly, only 14 players who started their careers before 1990 have gained 10,000 yards receiving. Rice is the only one in that group who’s gained at least 15,000 yards. And he has nearly 23,000.
            There are only eight players in NFL history with 100 receiving touchdowns; Jerry Rice has 197 or 41 more than the next highest. Steve Largent is the only player whose career started before Rice’s with triple-digit touchdowns and he has 100. In other words, he’s closer to the career touchdown total of Justin Blackmon than he is to Jerry Rice’s.
            In addition Rice has, by far, the most receptions of all time. Tony Gonzalez has now played 16 seasons of pro-bowl level football and is still over 300 receptions behind Rice. Even the stars of this pass-heavy era barely have a prayer to catch Rice. Randy Moss’s career is just about over and he’s nearly 600 behind. Anquan Boldin, Andre Johnson, Wes Welker and Steve Smith are on the wrong side of thirty yet are barely halfway there. Even all-time greats that played with Rice like Art Monk and Tim Brown aren’t near the same level as him.
            However Rice was more than just the greatest receiver of all time; he was an innovator. Rice’s legendary workout routines changed things in the way Don Hutson’s pre-determined routes changed things so long ago. Football became a year-round game, especially for receivers. Rice never took a day off or an easy day, he was determined to be the best ever and he succeeded. This is precisely what made Randy Moss’s claim of being the best ever at Super Bowl media day so ridiculous. It’s not that Rice is just better; it’s that they aren’t even in the same conversation.
Rice is the greatest of all time and there’s no reasonable debate to the contrary. In fact, Pro Football Referece lists his nick name as G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time). He may be the only person in sports capable of pulling off that nickname without sounding incredibly arrogant…because it’s accurate. Jerry Rice is the greatest of all time.
Stay Hungry, My Friends

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