http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/12935848p-13783605c.html
Mark Kreidler: Rice could always go, but stopping is tough
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, May 22, 2005
Can Jerry Rice really damage his football legacy? Oh, just absolutely not. The man is greatness on stilts. He's a head and two shoulders above 98 percent of the people who have ever played the game, ever.
But can Rice tinker with that legacy just enough to force a collective shudder from the assembled faithful?
Listen: Consider it done.
Nobody really tells any great athlete when to quit, and that's the good news and the bad all rolled into one. Michael Jordan couldn't stop playing, and at first it was cool, and then it was weird, and then it was triumphant, and then Jordan played for the Washington Wizards and the whole thing unraveled like a third-generation blazer.
And when they speak of Jordan, big picture, it will almost always be in reverent tones, in part because he really was that good and in part because Nike wouldn't have it any other way.
But did people shudder, there at the end?
Shudder they did.
Maybe the Jordan comparison is apt here, what with Rice's agent batch-mailing the entire NFL in an attempt stir up interest in the GOAT, or Greatest of All Time. He's got every right in the world to so inquire, of course, but could there be a less dignified job hunt?
"Future unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer seeks backup role as fourth receiver on contending or non-contending team. Will send résumé and highlight video. Willing to negotiate for right to wear No. 80 one more season."
And one more season. And one more season. And one more ... .
Jerry Rice was talking about playing one more season, what, two or three seasons ago? Since then, it has been from Oakland to Seattle and now, possibly, to Denver, where coach Mike Shanahan spoke with Rice last week about maybe taking on a backup/mentor/unofficial player-assistant job.
I can't think of Rice as anything but a 49er. Still, the man spent some good years with the Raiders, productive years, even a Super Bowl year. There's something basically brutal about seeing him potentially just switch over to a Broncos uniform.
Are there really no lines left to cross in pro sports? I mean, that's Bill Romanowski-type movement, isn't it?
Rice is convinced that people are spending too much time looking at his age - 42 - and not enough looking at his potential, and it's true that he averaged more than 14 yards a catch for the Seahawks last season. It also is not even remotely the point.
The point isn't that Rice might be able to hang on for another 16-game schedule, but rather that he's just marking time now. Even his agent, Jim Steiner, was moved to remind Rice at one point that he'll never truly be ready to retire, and he'll probably always truly believe he's still got some game left.
All the great ones think that way - and not just think, but believe. It can make for a glorious career. And it almost guarantees a stumble to the finish.
I'd grant the love-of-the-game argument (totally valid in Rice's case, by the way), but how much can any historically great player really love standing on the sideline and waiting for his number to get called? This isn't about Rice having the right to go on - of course he has the right. This is about finding an ending.
Jerry Rice has to search for that, because there will be an ending. It's a sure thing. The only questions are about the timing and, most certainly, the quality of that ending.
Rice's last job, in Seattle, was with a sympathetic former 49ers offensive coordinator, Mike Holmgren, who thought he might still be able to squeeze some value out of Rice by virtue of knowing his game so well. Comes now Shanahan, and much the same point of view.
Shanahan might find some useful holes for Rice to fill, and just completing that thought ought to make any sensible fan's skin crawl. How could Jerry Rice ever be reduced to situation-substitution territory? How could the Greatest of All Time wind up scrapping around for bit parts in other people's starring vehicles?
He was his own starring vehicle, this guy. He was the king of the world. Maybe one of the only real problems about being king is figuring out what to do after that.
At some point, Rice will have his day along Candlestick Point, when he signs his one-day contract with San Francisco so that he can retire a 49er. On so many levels, it is impossible to begrudge Rice for wanting to keep that day off the calendar for as long as he can.
The thing is, that day comes. Michael Jordan could tell him that; but, of course, Jordan's the wrong guy to ask - he had people shuddering at the end. Jerry Rice deserves better than a collective shudder. He's the only one who can do anything about that.
About the writer: Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/kreidler.
Mark Kreidler: Rice could always go, but stopping is tough
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, May 22, 2005
Can Jerry Rice really damage his football legacy? Oh, just absolutely not. The man is greatness on stilts. He's a head and two shoulders above 98 percent of the people who have ever played the game, ever.
But can Rice tinker with that legacy just enough to force a collective shudder from the assembled faithful?
Listen: Consider it done.
Nobody really tells any great athlete when to quit, and that's the good news and the bad all rolled into one. Michael Jordan couldn't stop playing, and at first it was cool, and then it was weird, and then it was triumphant, and then Jordan played for the Washington Wizards and the whole thing unraveled like a third-generation blazer.
And when they speak of Jordan, big picture, it will almost always be in reverent tones, in part because he really was that good and in part because Nike wouldn't have it any other way.
But did people shudder, there at the end?
Shudder they did.
Maybe the Jordan comparison is apt here, what with Rice's agent batch-mailing the entire NFL in an attempt stir up interest in the GOAT, or Greatest of All Time. He's got every right in the world to so inquire, of course, but could there be a less dignified job hunt?
"Future unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer seeks backup role as fourth receiver on contending or non-contending team. Will send résumé and highlight video. Willing to negotiate for right to wear No. 80 one more season."
And one more season. And one more season. And one more ... .
Jerry Rice was talking about playing one more season, what, two or three seasons ago? Since then, it has been from Oakland to Seattle and now, possibly, to Denver, where coach Mike Shanahan spoke with Rice last week about maybe taking on a backup/mentor/unofficial player-assistant job.
I can't think of Rice as anything but a 49er. Still, the man spent some good years with the Raiders, productive years, even a Super Bowl year. There's something basically brutal about seeing him potentially just switch over to a Broncos uniform.
Are there really no lines left to cross in pro sports? I mean, that's Bill Romanowski-type movement, isn't it?
Rice is convinced that people are spending too much time looking at his age - 42 - and not enough looking at his potential, and it's true that he averaged more than 14 yards a catch for the Seahawks last season. It also is not even remotely the point.
The point isn't that Rice might be able to hang on for another 16-game schedule, but rather that he's just marking time now. Even his agent, Jim Steiner, was moved to remind Rice at one point that he'll never truly be ready to retire, and he'll probably always truly believe he's still got some game left.
All the great ones think that way - and not just think, but believe. It can make for a glorious career. And it almost guarantees a stumble to the finish.
I'd grant the love-of-the-game argument (totally valid in Rice's case, by the way), but how much can any historically great player really love standing on the sideline and waiting for his number to get called? This isn't about Rice having the right to go on - of course he has the right. This is about finding an ending.
Jerry Rice has to search for that, because there will be an ending. It's a sure thing. The only questions are about the timing and, most certainly, the quality of that ending.
Rice's last job, in Seattle, was with a sympathetic former 49ers offensive coordinator, Mike Holmgren, who thought he might still be able to squeeze some value out of Rice by virtue of knowing his game so well. Comes now Shanahan, and much the same point of view.
Shanahan might find some useful holes for Rice to fill, and just completing that thought ought to make any sensible fan's skin crawl. How could Jerry Rice ever be reduced to situation-substitution territory? How could the Greatest of All Time wind up scrapping around for bit parts in other people's starring vehicles?
He was his own starring vehicle, this guy. He was the king of the world. Maybe one of the only real problems about being king is figuring out what to do after that.
At some point, Rice will have his day along Candlestick Point, when he signs his one-day contract with San Francisco so that he can retire a 49er. On so many levels, it is impossible to begrudge Rice for wanting to keep that day off the calendar for as long as he can.
The thing is, that day comes. Michael Jordan could tell him that; but, of course, Jordan's the wrong guy to ask - he had people shuddering at the end. Jerry Rice deserves better than a collective shudder. He's the only one who can do anything about that.
About the writer: Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/kreidler.