Friday, September 09, 2005

 

Don't Take the Chance

I wrote about Jerry Rice's retirement in a previous post, but in the last couple of days, something else came up about Rice, the NFL and his retirement that I'd like to touch on.

Jerry Rice was the greatest wide receiver in the history of football. His numbers are staggering, but we'll soon be retiring lots of WR's with staggering numbers due to the importance of passing in football today. While Rice's numbers alone are, and will continue to be good enough to get him into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, it was the way he played the game that made him one of the all time greats. If you needed a big play, you turned to Jerry Rice. As great as Rice was in the regular season, he was even greater in the playoffs, truly one of the great "big game" receivers of all time.

I'm not going to say anything bad about Jerry Rice, as far as I'm concerned he's everything a football player should be. Rice played most of his career with the San Francisco 49ers, and while he was still a great receiver by the time he moved on to Oakland, he will always be remembered as a 'Niner. Rice retired from football, though, as a Denver Bronco. Rice thought it would be cool if he retired as a San Francisco 49er. I think it would be cool too.

This is not without precident. A player will sign a contract with the team he was best known as playing for and then retire, thus retiring as a member of the team they are most associated with. It's a pointless gesture, but I always though it a nice one. Off the top of my head I can remember former 'Niners Roger Craig and Ronnie Lott as well as former Bronco Steve Atwater doing this

The difference with Rice is when he chose to retire. Rice went through an entire pre-season, waited until all teams cut down to their final rosters before making his decision to retire. The 'Niners could still sign Jerry Rice to a contract so that he could retire as a member of that team, but since the rosters are already set, the 'Niners would have to cut a current player to make room for Rice. It is my understanding that the player cut to make room for Rice would then be available to any team who wanted him through the waiver process. OK, the 'Niners will be one of the worst teams again this year and chances are that no one will want the 53rd best player on the worst team in football, but still, the 'Niners don't want to expose one of their players in this manner and have no plans to do this. The NFL as an organization has always been fantical about rules, they don't bend them for any reason. In my opinion, the NFL should make a one time exception to this rule for Jerry Rice because, well, because he's Jerry Rice.

That said, I don't think the NFL will do that. Some of you will think that it's dumb for the 'Niners not to cut a player to resign Rice for an incredibly short period of time. To those people I offer the following. In 2000, the New England Patriots drafted two Quarterbacks. Their starter was Drew Bledsoe, a QB who had led them to the Super Bowl a few years earlier. Their second string QB was a Huard (Brock or Damon, I forget which one), not a stellar QB, but a guy with some experience who was physically and stylistically similar to Bledsoe. One of the rookie QB's was Kansas State's Michael Bishop. Bishop was an option style QB with a strong arm. He was a project, a guy who was fast and shifty. It was pretty clear that Bishop wasn't the type of quarterback that would be able to help the Patriots in 2000, but with an intersting set of physical skills, he was a guy the Patriots chose to keep around and work with.

In a move that is almost unheard of in the game today, the Patriots chose to keep a fourth QB on their roster, a kid who had split time as a starter at the University of Michigan. He really hadn't garnered much interest while playing at Michigan, but the Pats drafted him, he showed promise and they decided to keep him around. I don't recall him playing a down for the Patriots that season.

Let's assume for a moment that some great player from the Patriots past had moved on to another team but wanted to return to the Patriots, sign with them and retire, exactly like Jerry Rice wants to do now. Let's say that the Patriots decided to cut one of their players to re-sign this former great for a day. If I were a coach looking at my roster looking for a player to cut, the person who would stick out would be a fourth string quarterback, perhaps he'd be the one to cut, to make this kind gesture to a former player.

If that fourth string QB had been cut by the New England Patriots in 2000, a player by the name of Tom Brady would have been available to every team in the NFL. Granted, Tom Brady was available to every team in the NFL in the draft that year, but he would have been made available to every team one more time.

You've chosen your team, San Francisco, as much as Jerry Rice deserves a nice gesture, don't let a potentially great player get away.

BOJ

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