Jerry Rice: Touchdown Machine

On November eleventh, two thousand and one, greatest receiver of all time, Jerry Rice becomes the first player in NFL history to score two hundred touchdowns in a Monday night football game against the Denver Broncos while playing for the Oakland Raiders, doing this at the age of forty in his eighteenth season in the league. We're going to dive into how he became the greatest of all time and how it is not even close when you look at the numbers today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge as we dive into Jerry Rice today. And today's trivic question is in how many games did Jerry Rice set the record for touchdown passes in a season? Now? Jerry Rice grew up in a small town in Missississippi, and he was the sixth of eight kids, and his parents provided as much as they could for all their kids, but that also meant the kids had to help out as well. One thing Jerry often attributes to what helped him have such great hands was that his father was a bricklayer and him and his brothers would help his father out before and after school laying bricks and they would throw bricks to each other to help the jobs go faster. So this worked on their hand at coordination and strengthen their hands along the way. So Rice didn't really get the chance to play organize sports until high school, but not right away, you know. He would play pickup games, sandlot games, but his mother didn't want him to play football, so he didn't play his freshman year as she thought it was too rough as Rice was relatively thin, and as a parent myself, it's scary to put your child in a sport where they're gonna get hit. But as a sophomore, Rice was actually caught skipping class by the assistant principle of his school and he chased after him and Rice took off. His speed was not unnoticed, so the assistant principal told the football coach that he needed to offer Rice to position on the team, and they all got together and talked to Rice's mother and Jerry told his mom that he really wanted to and she eventually gave up wi fi He's gonna figure out a way to do it anyway. But on top of that, he also played basketball and was on the track team, but on the football team he actually played multiple positions, going both ways, playing running back, tight end, receiver, defensive back, but he really stood out as a receiver. Now, due to the small size of the school and it being in the late seventies, lots of his stats were gone, but our best guess is that his senior year he had fifty receptions and thirty touchdowns, which led him to be All State for Mississippi. But because he was at a small school, of course, he didn't get recruited by a lot of schools, although he did get reached out to by multiple big programs, including Mississippi State, which was Rice's dream school, but they didn't offer a scholarship. In fact, one of the only schools that did was Mississippi Valley State, who ran a pass heavy offense, which Rice really enjoyed, and so he joined Mississippi Valley State, which is a historically black university, which we've covered on previous episodes, including Prairie View's Losing streak and Steve McNair's Amazing season, and we mentioned Rice in that episode. And Rice had a solid first season, having four hundred yards and two touchdowns, but the second season, he broke out, catching sixty six passes and going for over one thy one hundred yards and seven touchdowns, and in nineteen eighty three he set n CUAA records for one hundred and two receptions and one thousand, four hundred and fifty yards. It was named first team Division two A All American. He even set an nc double record during a game against Southern where he caught twenty four passes, and he continued this streak as the next year he broke his own records, having over eighteen hundred yards and one hundred and twelve receptions with twenty seven touchdowns and again was named an All American and finished ninth in the Heisman in nineteen eighty four. So this was just the start for Rice, and it caught the eye of the many people in the NFL. Although his production was amazing, he was at a lower level and he didn't test that well, running between what measured as a four four five or four to seven. He never was the fastest, but he always worked harder and he was always the first one in in the last to leave, making sure his route running was on point. And he had a connection with his quarterbacks and San Francisco believed so much in him they actually traded picks to move up in the first round to make sure they were able to draft Jerry Rice with the number seventeenth pick just a year after winning the Super Bowl. But he struggled his first year as it took him a while to acclimate to the new game and ununderstand the new playbook. But he continued to s study and continued to grow, and he finished the season strong, ending with nine hundred and twenty seven yards in three touchdowns his first season, and he added another rushing touchdown during that year, and now understanding the rigors of the game and having more connection with his Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, he was able to come back his second year, getting eighty six receptions for over fifteen hundred yards and fifteen touchdowns. He put himself on the map and it really stood out. But arguably the next season was what was one of his most impressive seasons, as it was a strike shortened season and the teams only played twelve games, and in those twelve games, he was able to have over one thousand yards and a record twenty two touchdowns, a record that was only broken by Randy Moss by one touchdown in as sixteen game season, and because he was able to get over one thousand yards, it continued streak of over eleven years of having over a thousand yards and arguably would have been more without if it wasn't for injury. And this is what made him so dangerous as a player is that he was so consistent. In the nineteen ninety two season, he was able to surpass Steve Largent catching his one hundred and one touchdown pass to become the all time leader in touchdown passes, and he would play another twelve years after this. This is what made his numbers stand out for longevity. But it wasn't that he played for such a long time, which he did, It was that he was good for such a long time. He would go on to win three Super Bowls with the forty nine Ers, being Super Bowl MVP of Super Bowl twenty three, where he had over two hundred yards and a touchdown during that game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He'd be a two time Offensive Player of the Year and be named First team All Pro ten times and second team once, thirteen time Pro Bowler, and even when Safeisco thought he was done at the age of thirty eight. He joined the Oakland Raiders and had two more thousand yard seasons, helping lead them to the two thousand and one Super Bowl, which was the only one he lost. But that year, on November eleventh against the Denver Broncos, he would set the record scoring his two hundred touchdown, and that same year he would go pass Walter Payton as the all time leader in yards from scrimmage with over twenty one thousand yards. And Jerry just didn't know how to quit, and that sadly was his downfall, as after his two thousand and three season with Oakland where he had over eight hundred yards, he struggled the next season and Oakland would trade him to Seattle, where he also struggled but was able to have three touchdowns in over three hundred yards. He would try to get on with Denver would decide to retire, inning an historic twenty year career with numbers that are crazy. He leads the NFL in receptions with over one thousand, five hundred and forty nine. The next closest receiver is Larry Fitzgerald, who is less than one hundred receptions away, and there's even a bigger gap between and For the career yards mark, he has twenty two thousand, eight hundred and ninety five. No other receiver has over twenty thousand, and Larry Fitzgerald's the next closest with over seventeen thousand. He finished his career with one hundred and ninety seven receiving touchdowns. Randy Moss has a second spot with one hundred and fifty six, and he ended his career with over two hundred and eight all purpose touchdowns including rushing and fumbling returns. The next closest is Emmett Smith with one hundred and seventy five touchdowns, and he has He had fourteen seasons without least one thousand yards, and no one else has had more than ten in their career. What made Jerry so special was that work ethic he learned as a child. He had to earn everything. He wasn't the fastest, he wasn't the strongest, he didn't jump the highest, but he was just great at every aspect his route, running, his hands, his football IQ. He was the perfect player. How many say that he lucked out because he played with two Hall of Fame quarterbacks and Joe Montana and Steve Young. Now, maybe he did, but he also made them better. They had their best seasons with Jerry Rice. And for quarterback and receiver, it goes hand in hand. There's not many quarterbacks that make the Hall of Fame without having a receiver that did the same. You can only play, and you can only play where you end up. And Jerry made sure that he ended up making his team better. And if you liked this episode, you can check out the Behind the Mike podcast and that's ad with an and A. We're host Mike Neil discusses stories, games, draft, super Bowls, and team origins and more, all to get you your sports history fix every day. I'll put a link in the description below for you to check it out. And if you enjoy today's episode, please leave us a rating of review wherever you're listening. It really helps us grow and it helps us make more and more sports history for you every day. And we'll see you tomorrow for more daily sports history. And the answer today's trivia question in how many games did it take Jerry Rice to set the record for touchdowns in a season, And the answer is twelve. He scored twelve touchdowns. He scored twenty two touchdowns in just twelve games, and the record currently is twenty three touchdowns set by Randy Moss in sixteen games they take and the patent steep