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• Mr. Rice's official site
• About Go Long!
• ESPN Classic article on Mr. Rice

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Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome Jerry Rice to this program. The future Hall of Famer spent 20 years playing in the NFL, along the way becoming the greatest wide receiver in the history of the game. He is the all-time leader in receptions, yards, gains, touchdown catches, and so many others. Matter of fact, a fascinating stat on that in just a second.

His new book is called “Go Long!: My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame.” Jerry Rice, an honor to have you on the program.

Jerry Rice: Thank you, I'm glad to be here.

Tavis: I got caught up in that intro because it’s really not even fair to start trying to list the records that you hold, because the irony of it is that you have a record for having the most records. There are, like, 30 ... do you know this?

Rice: I think.

Tavis: You have, like, 38 records.

Rice: Thirty-eight?

Tavis: Thirty-eight.

Rice: Wow.

Tavis: Which is a record. (Laugh) You have more-

Rice: I didn’t realize I had that many records.

Tavis: Yeah, you got, like, 38, so that’s, like-

Rice: That is a record.

Tavis: That is a record, to have 38 of them. When you look back on this game, what do you make of all those records, and the fact that you don't even know the stuff that I'm telling you about in your own career?

Rice: I never, never really played the game for the records. I played the game because I really loved it. And I enjoy going out there, entertaining so many people. And I was fortunate to play with some of the best players who ever played the game, have won Superbowls, and throughout the process have taken my family along for the ride.

Tavis: This is our first time getting a chance to meet, but you have no idea how I have, like, personally followed your career. And the thing that I have always respected most about you, and I have read everything I get my hands on about Jerry Rice over the years, because I wanted to know what allowed you off the field to be as good as you were on the field.

And I have, like, for years been reading about your off-season workout regimen, and how there are guys in the NFL when you played who would come from time to time, because they wanted to be as good as Jerry, and they heard about how serious you were about your workouts. They'd come try to work out with you in the summer, and nobody could ever hang with you in your summer workouts.

Rice: I had a regimen that was unbelievable.

Tavis: Tell me a little bit about that summer regimen.

Rice: Well, what I wanted to do right after season, I wanted to give my body a little bit of time to recuperate. So, what I did, I started running hills. And as the season got closer, that’s when I went into my sprint work. But I had so many guys to come, because they were curious how can this guy maintain going out there every year and being productive? And it was the off season, working out and not being a couch potato.

Tavis: Your start was really not that terribly auspicious.

Rice: Dropping footballs.

Tavis: I didn’t wanna say it, but you dropped a lot of them.

Rice: Yeah, I did.

Tavis: When you first started.

Rice: I really did.

Tavis: What was that about, and how’d you transform into being the best?

Rice: I think just making that transition. All of a sudden, this small country boy from Mississippi, I'm off to the big times. San Francisco 49ers. Meeting Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott. Joe Montana from Notre Dame, Ronnie Lott from USC. Jerry Rice from Mississippi Valley State University. And I felt I had to prove myself.

So I went in there with the attitude that hey, look, I'm just gonna work my butt off, and getting to know the playbook at first, it was a bumpy road. And after I mastered that playbook, then everything took off.

Tavis: Tell me about catching bricks back in Mississippi.

Rice: Well, my father, he was a bricklayer. He was a tough man. And I talk a lot about that in the book. And I never wanted to let him down. In my job, I was a helper, and I had to do my job. If I didn’t do my job, my father would discipline me. And back in Mississippi, you got whippings. So, I think that was that fear of failure that motivated me.

And I never wanted to let anyone down. When I went to college, it was the same way. When I went on to the pros, it was the same way. And I always just wanted to be successful.

Tavis: Yeah, so your dad would throw bricks at you.

Rice: Yeah, I had brothers that would toss bricks up, and the scaffold would be, like, 20 feet up, and the bricks would separate, and I had to snatch the bricks out of the air. And I was very good at that. I think it helped me with my hand-eye coordination.

Tavis: I'm sure it did. (Laugh)

Rice: But yeah, because, and when you think about it-

Tavis: (unintelligible) busting your head, yeah.

Rice: If I blink, I'm coming down.

Tavis: Exactly.

Rice: So, I think I was really focused. It helped with my hand and eye coordination. But it also taught me the meaning of hard work.

Tavis: Yeah. Catching a football’s gotta be a lot easier than catching bricks, though.

Rice: That was easy. Easy, because-

Tavis: Yeah. Catching a football was easy for you.

Rice: -after catching bricks, then all of a sudden, to catch a football you gotta have soft hands, and you gotta be able to trust your hands. And I see a lot of guys today, a lot of receivers, they don't trust their hands. That’s why they try to cradle the ball, and that’s why you're seeing so many drops on the football field right now.

Tavis: Because they don't trust their hands.

Rice: They don't trust their hands. And one of my fellow teammates, Terrell Owens, I think he led the league this year with drops. He had 18.

Tavis: Yeah. Tell me how, for players who are asking you how to learn to trust their hands, what’s the process for doing that? What do you say to them?

Rice: I used to do crazy things. If I was in the dorm, or something like that, I would turn the lights off, and I would throw the ball up. And it’s all about just feeling your way, and knowing exactly where that ball is at at all times. And just catching a lot of extra balls when you're tired. That’s when you're gonna have drops. Because then you lose your focus. And after practice, I would run routes and I would catch footballs, and I think that really helped me to be successful.

Tavis: Yeah. It doesn’t hurt to have a good quarterback either, does it?

Rice: When you got Joe Montana; when you got Steve Young; two Hall of Famers. So we worked hard. But with the San Francisco 49ers, we didn’t have any celebrities. Man, we went out there and we played the game hard, and we wanted to win football games. We wanted to win Superbowls. And if we made it to the playoffs and we got eliminated, we were devastated. You see a lot of that happening now, and these guys, they're okay with it.

Tavis: How do you process ... you're not around now, but how do you process looking at a franchise that was, like, the franchise to end franchises in the NFL. And now, for the last few seasons, it’s the exact opposite of when you play. You're not there anymore, but how do you process that as a former 49er?

Rice: It’s hard.

Tavis: Yeah.

Rice: It’s hard, because you don't see that hunger anymore. And I know the San Francisco 49ers, they under the leadership of a new owner now, John York. But Eddie De Barlow; unbelievable. This guy, he was perfect for the team, because you knew that upstairs, everything was taken care of. He wanted to eliminate all the distractions. And I think that’s why we were able to go out there and win so many Superbowls.

Tavis: Speaking of Superbowls, everybody’s talking about it. History’s gonna be made, one way or the other. A brother is gonna win this game.

Rice: Yeah, yeah, there we go. (Laugh) Yes.

Tavis: What do you make of that?

Rice: I was happy.

Tavis: Two Black coaches, man.

Rice: I was happy to see that. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, and I've been doing Sirius radio, and I've been talking to these guys. I've been talking to Tony, and he was a little frustrated, because that defense at times were okay. But they were inconsistent. Lovie Smith, he was having problems with Rex Grossman, his quarterback.

And now these guys are gonna face off their best friends, and I think last time they had dinner or something like that, Tony Dungy, he paid the bill. So now I'm sure they're gonna have some fun with this. But it’s gonna be very competitive, and for the first time, we’re gonna have a Black coach to win the Superbowl. I think it’s unbelievable.

Tavis: I wonder whether or not you think, though, that the expectations that so many of us place on that. That is to say that it’s gonna turn into something beyond this symbolic moment. Whether our hopes are too high. Because we have these moments all the time, and so often, we get let down thinking that this means that there are gonna be more Black head coaches given an opportunity, etcetera, etcetera. And then our balloon gets burst.

Rice: But that’s the only way you're gonna find out. And we have two great coaches that really deserve to be in the Superbowl right now. And I know it’s gonna be a lot of recognition brought to this. But you’ve got to start somewhere, and I think it’s a great stepping stone.

Tavis: Any predictions from Jerry Rice?

Rice: Well, you know what? I picked the Colts to make it to the Superbowl, but I also picked Dallas. So, at least I have the Colts there, and I think it’s time for Peyton Manning. Because it was a lot of pressure on him the other day to get past Tom Brady. And I think it’s his time now. Plus, him and Marvin Harrison, they broke so many of my records.

Tavis: (Laugh) That means you should be rooting for that guy, then.

Rice: Yeah, they great people, though.

Tavis: Yeah. So this “Dance with the Stars” thing was, like, huge.

Rice: It scared me to death. I didn’t know the magnitude of it. (Laugh) Until I got in there.

Tavis: Like, 27 million viewers.

Rice: Yeah, and they tell you if you fall down, get up. If you can’t get up, give them the signal, they gonna go to the commercial, and stuff like that. But I didn’t know. But once I got in it and I said, “Well, I got my reputation at stake here.” (Laugh) Because I got my peers looking at me, the critics. They were talking about really that I would tarnish my career, and stuff like that. But I wanted to go for it, and I went for it, and I think a lot of people, they wanna take chances, but they're just afraid to. You’ve got to live life.

Tavis: How did you process, though, to your critics and tarnishing your image, how did you process that jock going to “Dance with the Stars?” And obviously, Emmett did the same thing, and Emmett ended up winning the next season. But how do you, as a jock, process making a decision to go on a show where you're dancing, when we’ve seen you do this thing on the football field?

Rice: Well, yeah, because they look at it, they think it’s (unintelligible).

Tavis: Kind of soft, yeah.

Rice: Yeah, soft and effeminate. I looked at it as a situation where I knew nothing about ballroom dancing. And I said, “It might be quite interesting.”

Tavis: Something to learn.

Rice: Yeah, something to learn. And it might be a little bit challenging. Because the perception here is because people think you athletic, they think you should be a good dancer. Also that you should be a good golfer. It doesn’t work that way. So, I had to work my butt off. I remember the first routine she showed me. And I told her, I said, “I can’t do that. (Laugh) I can't do that.” And I'm, like, “What have I gotten myself into now?”

Because the show was only a couple weeks away, and I was gonna be in front of millions of people. And I just kept working hard, and I sat back and I watched the other dancers. Like George Hamilton, how he made that presentation to the audience, also to the judges. And I just caught little things, and then I got it. It hit me. Hey, you gotta play to the audience.

Tavis: Well, you know a little something-something about that, though.

Rice: Yeah, yeah.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Rice: But the only thing about it, I was out of uniform, though. So I was exposed. Then I had three judges that had horns. Yeah. (Laugh) That was very critical.

Tavis: (Laugh) I'm told that you gave Emmett some advice that helped him win the next season, though.

Rice: Yeah, I told Emmett, I said, “Look, you have to play to the judges. And whenever you get a chance, just, like, wink at (unintelligible) Ann. If you wink at her, you got it.” (Laugh)

Tavis: (Laugh) Well, Jerry Rice knows a little something-something about winning. Twenty years in the NFL, he is without question, this is a good Mississippi boy, and I love that, since both of us are from Mississippi. The greatest wide receiver, as far as I'm concerned, in the history of the game, and he will very shortly, be in the NFL Hall of Fame. First ballot, first year of eligibility, you can bank on that. The new book is called “Go Long!,” Jerry Rice, “My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame.” What an honor, Jerry, to have you on the program.

Rice: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Tavis: All the best to you.