It’s “Jerry Rice Day” at 3Com Park Sunday for what everybody agrees is the last home game for the great receiver of the San Francisco 49ers.
What everybody doesn’t realize is that most games he has played against the Bears turn into Jerry Rice Day. The 49ers don’t need to declare a holiday.
Rice has played seven times against the Bears, including two playoff games. In those seven games he has caught 33 passes, nine of them for touchdowns. That ratio of a touchdown on every 3.6 catches is twice as good as his career ratio of a touchdown on every 7.2 catches.
Rice was a rookie in 1985, the Bears’ last glory year. Since then he has faced every team in the league, none with as good a catch-to-touchdown ratio as he enjoys against the Bears.
His performance at frigid Soldier Field in the 1988 NFC championship game officially ended the Bears’ domineering run of the ’80s. It was supposed to be Bear weather and Jim McMahon was back at quarterback, but Rice caught two touchdown passes from Joe Montana in the first half to start a 28-3 rout. Rice finished with five catches for 133 yards.
It was the closest the Bears ever got to a return Super Bowl trip. Rice helped lead the 49ers to three Super Bowls.
Rice, 38, wants to play next year, but the 49ers need to subtract $11 million from their salary cap and can’t fit him into their plans.
“I know I plan on playing somewhere,” Rice said. “I don’t know exactly where, but somewhere.”
General Manager Bill Walsh said: “Jerry could be playing his last home game this Sunday. I hope our fans are totally apprised of this and they have a chance to recognize Jerry as possibly the greatest football player ever to take the field, and certainly the greatest San Francisco 49er.
“Is Jerry a salary-cap victim? Well, Jerry is 38 years old. You can’t go on forever.”
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Rice’s oldest child, 13-year-old daughter Jaqui, will sing the national anthem.
“You guys are going to see this white horse come onto the field and I’m going to jump on and ride off into the sunset,” Rice said. “I don’t want too much of a big thing. I really don’t. Basically, I owe the fans this–that I have appreciated everything they’ve done for me. I would love to go out there Sunday and set the stadium on fire, give the fans what they deserve. I’m going to go out hard and let the fans know I appreciate them.”
Across the bay: It’s strange but believable to imagine Rice in another uniform–Montana and Ronnie Lott moved on from the 49ers. The Raiders, where Lott landed in 1991, are a possibility for Rice as well.
“Anybody who knows me knows that Jerry Rice is my all-time favorite player,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. “He is awesome. He is the man. God bless him.
“I’d be happy to see him. I don’t think I’m allowed to say anything about Jerry Rice in that respect. I wouldn’t even want to speculate. Let Jerry Rice have the floor and let him finish what has been an unbelievable career that three or four guys together may not duplicate.”
Buc-Ram crash: The Monday night rematch of the1999 NFC title game is a classic repeat of the offense-vs.-defense argument started when the Rams reached the Super Bowl with an 11-6 win over the Bucs.
The Bucs added Keyshawn Johnson to juice up their offense, which means they’d love to get the one touchdown out of him that they failed to get last year. Bucs coach Tony Dungy makes no apologies for a philosophy that outlasted Miami 16-13 last week without an offensive touchdown.
“Buc-ball at its finest,” Dungy said. “When we are playing well, that’s the way we play.”
Rams coach Mike Martz doesn’t expect the kind of track meet he prefers.
“They’re going to stay in this game until the fourth quarter and try to find a way to win it in the fourth quarter,” Martz said. “I know it’s a conservative approach, but it works. They’ve done a great job of managing the game on both sides of the ball and not letting it get away from them on some sort of turnover or bad play.”
Where they want him: The Vikings can wrap up home field in the NFC by beating the Packers in the Metrodome. The Packers are still mathematically alive for the playoffs, but quarterback Brett Favre’s record in the Metrodome is 1-7.
No, thank you: Despite their 13-game home winning streak, the Vikings don’t like the Metrodome that much. After the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission released plans Wednesday for a renovated Metrodome, the Vikings expressed disappointment.
“We studied renovation for a year and a half,” said Mike Kelly, executive vice president. “The proposal that was just presented is the same proposal we saw many, many months ago except that now, for some reason, it costs more.”
Kelly said the Vikings have developed “momentum” in their plans to build an on-campus stadium they would share with the University of Minnesota.
Fond farewell: They bade farewell to Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh on Saturday in the last game before the place will be imploded Feb. 18. It opened in 1970 and coincided with the rise of the Steelers from NFL doormats to the NFL Steel Curtain. They had been playing at Forbes Field and Pitt Stadium and practicing at a county park 15 miles from Pittsburgh.
“It’s beyond belief they’re tearing down the stadium 30 years later, and the Colosseum in Rome is still standing,” former Steelers linebacker Andy Russell said.
The Steelers played seven AFC championship games at Three Rivers and won four. The first three wins were part of the four-Super Bowl title run in the ’70s. Next year they will move into a new stadium next door.
Steeler fodder: Speaking of imploding, Pittsburgh’s opponent, Washington, was considering its plight last week when cornerback Deion Sanders said: “That’s a Barbara Walters special. Maybe it’s a little bit of everything, but it’s nothing that’s going to be taken care of this season.”
After interim coach Terry Robiskie’s embarrassing debut in Dallas, Sanders said, “I feel so bad for Coach Robinski.”
Sanders later said he didn’t realize the coach’s name has no “n.”
Saints’ turn: It’s only right the New Orleans Saints should win the NFC West, following the St. Louis Rams in 1999, the Atlanta Falcons in 1998, the San Francisco 49ers in 1997 and the Carolina Panthers in 1996.
The Saints would be the third winner to catapult from worst record to first in the division. This is the kind of Any Given Sunday, Any Given Season stuff that the late Commissioner Pete Rozelle dreamed of and Bears fans live for.
Unselfish Saint: Saints defensive tackle La’Roi Glover, a top candidate for defensive player of the year, had 16 sacks through the first 12 games and was on pace to break Mark Gastineau’s NFL record of 22.
When nose tackle Norman Hand was injured in Week 14, Glover agreed to take Hand’s spot, where double teams limit sacks.
Glover is stuck at 16 but still has a shot at the league sacks record for defensive tackles set by Minnesota’s Keith Millard with 18 in 1989.
Early exit: Baltimore coach Brian Billick took his team to Phoenix on Friday, a day early, and explained:
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“Part of it, quite frankly, is that this is the weekend before Christmas. If I were [in Baltimore] here Friday night, I know I’d have some parties to go to and probably have to shop on Saturday and that type of thing. So I’ll be the bad guy. I’m going to get you out of town and your wives can be mad at me.”
Faulk rare: With four touchdowns last week against Minnesota and four Oct. 29 against San Francisco, Rams running back Marshall Faulk joins Jim Taylor (Packers 1962) and Gale Sayers (Bears 1965) as the only players to score four touchdowns twice in one season.
Is Faulk back in the running for league MVP?
“I don’t know,” he said. “Who cares? Who votes for that? Anybody who played football?”