Black History Month Profile - Jerry Rice - Why Sports Podcast?!

Jerry Rice is considered the greatest wide receiver and football player of all time. He holds numerous records in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns. Rice played for the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, and Seattle Seahawks. He was known for his superb catching ability, concentration, and speed. Rice was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999 and is widely regarded as the original GOAT (Greatest of All Time). And there it is, your new leaderboard. When you think about the greatest that has ever done it, there are so many words that come to mind. But when you think about the sport of football, I think about the original GOAT. We use that term now when we're describing Tom Brady, but when that term initially came in existence, it really only described one man. And today, that man is our Black History profile today. And that, of course, is the legendary number 80, Jerry Rice. Welcome everyone to the Y Sports Podcast. It's your boy, Alvin Spain, and this is our last profile in Black History Month this week. And quite frankly, I could not find a better person or a better way to end our show's podcast with Black History Month than simply put, one of the greatest sportsmen of all time. Jerry Rice still stands head and shoulders as the greatest wide receiver that has ever played this game. And back in 2010, he was named the number one football player of all time. Something tells me when they next do those ratings, that may change a little bit, but let's still recognize the greatest football player of all time. That is Jerry Rice. And what's more to be said about Jerry Rice than, I mean, literally, his resume is in the record books. I mean, and again, let's just go down some of these here. He currently owns 38, and I am saying this as of 2024, February 29th, 2024, this is still a man that carries 38 records from the time of his retirement. Some of them passed, but he still has set the standard. He still is the all-time leader in receptions with 1,549. He is still the record holder in receiving yards with 22,895. He is still the record holder in touchdown receptions at 197, and again, receiving touchdowns 207. With that combined rushing and receiving touchdowns, total of 208 touchdowns overall. Has over 23,000 all-purpose yards in his career. Simply put, he is the greatest. And that has been a term that we've used a lot. And I think in some cases, as a sports fan, I feel like we've used it irresponsibly. Because I think we've used it to term certain things in the moment, and not necessarily taking in respect of that person's career. It was, again, when I think about GOATs now, I look at guys like Mariano Rivera, who's the greatest closer of all time, ain't nobody, and I repeat, ain't nobody touching him. And you think about Tom Brady, and even now, you may have a contender in Patrick Mahomes as potentially the greatest quarterback, maybe greatest football player of all time. But before all of that, there is Jerry Rice. And if somebody wants to tell me, Lawrence Taylor, who am I to argue? That's gonna be, we can have that discussion at another day. But again, we're celebrating Jerry Rice today, and his legendary career. And he's, of course, he's known for his legendary three Super Bowl championships with the San Francisco 49ers, and again, he has stays with the Oakland Raiders, as well as the Seattle Seahawks. But his time will forever be remembered when he was by the Bay. And I just learned this when I was doing my research, he was nicknamed World. To be honest, I've never heard anybody called Jerry Rice World. But it makes sense, though, because again, the explanation is, because of his superb catching ability, his accomplishments, and numerous records. I mean, again, we've kind of covered that, about his accomplishments, his records. I mean, when you look at, when wide receivers do their video and do their studies, I can only imagine this guy and his work is one of the first things that they're looking at. His amazing concentration in catching the ball, he was amazing with his hands, and had legendary speed as well. He is truly an all-timer. He was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame back in 1999. And again, depending on how you look at it, in 99, he was considered next to Jim Brown as football's greatest player, according to the Sporting News. And when you look at the NFL Network, they called him the greatest player of all time. Rice attended Mississippi Valley State from 1981 to 1984, and from there, his greatness truly began. He was drafted 21st in the 1984 draft by the San Francisco 49ers, and for his sake, he's had the opportunity to work besides two of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. They themselves are Hall of Famers, and Joe Montana and Steve Young. What more can be said about him? He's worked with greatness. He is greatness. In every aspect there is, there's Jerry Rice and his ability to make plays, his ability to just score touchdowns, his ability to get first downs. He is still everything you would ever want, and not just a wide receiver, but a football player. He did his talking on the field. Really wasn't known so much for trash talking, but he did have his moments with legendary quarterbacks, Deion Sanders and Darrell Green. But anybody who's ever played against him, you will not hear too many people knock him. He is, simply put, the greatest of all time, and I can only imagine what those numbers would have been like if he had played in this era. You know, and I don't think it's a stretch for me to say this, he played in a more physical, now again football is very physical regardless, but they played in a little bit more of a physical era, especially with defenders being able to do a little bit more to wide receivers, and he still set those numbers. Can you imagine now with people probably giving him a five yard cushion or just don't want to have passing interference, how great Jerry Rice would be right now. Just an all time great, and like I said, to me, he will always be known as the original GOAT. Because for me, when he retired, and you look at the records, he is literally the greatest that has ever done it, and to a point, it will take a minute before somebody catches him. You look at the great wide receivers that are coming out, that have been bowling out these last couple of years, you got Double J, Justin Jefferson, you got AJ Green, you got AJ Brown, excuse me, well I guess AJ Green too, but he played a little bit further ago. Tyreek Hill, you look at these guys that are reshaping, redefining that legendary wide receiver position, but they still, as great as they are, still have a ways to go before they catch Flash 80. Not just in the record book, but also with rings as well. Well ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening in. This has been the Wild Sports Podcast. We go back, we will talk, when we open this podcast up again next month, we will talk about the NFL Draft. We've got March Madness coming up, and I think we're nearing our one year anniversary because we started this with March Madness, so let's see if we can do something a little special for that episode, but this is, oh wow, I can't believe it's been a year. So thank you all for listening, thank you all for just supporting this podcast, and like I said, we'll look to do more as we get ready to do our one year anniversary, and on the wrestling side of things, we got the Revolution pay-per-view coming up, and we'll probably do one more special podcast for the man called Sting, who is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, and his legendary career comes to an end this Sunday at Revolution, and so you expect a special podcast from me on that as well, because I want to talk about Sting and just goodbyes in general, because especially in wrestling, we've been saying goodbyes to a lot of people as far as either retirement or they're moving on to other companies, and I'd like to get your thoughts on what has been something that you remember when you said goodbye to your favorite athlete as well. So we'll talk more about that, we're so excited and we're just so grateful for you guys to be able to listen in to this podcast, and we'll look for a lot more fun stuff coming up, especially we got WrestleMania coming up, so we'll definitely be highlighting that as well. This is a fun time, every month is a fun time in sports, but when we hit March and April, when we hit the NCAA tournament, when we're talking about the NFL draft, and we're talking about WrestleMania, there's still so much excitement, and I can't wait to discuss it and share it with you all in the upcoming weeks. We love you all, this has been so much fun, and again, to the original GOAT, the original greatest of all time, Jerry Rice, you are amazing, and you are a stud, and I can't wait to see you blinged out again in the next San Francisco 49er football game. This has been the Y Sports Podcast, it's been your boy Alvin Spain, when you ask why sports, we just simply answer why not, because it's just so much fun. We love you all, take care, and we'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.