EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – After finishing off the play, a little flare pass to the flat, the running back turned and casually jogged back to the huddle to set up for the next snap. It was a routine sequence in the middle of the dog days of the Los Angeles Chargers’ training camp.
You see that?
Watching the practice from the family section, I couldn’t help but egg on Jerry Rice.
Of course, he noticed.
If we were in Rocklin, you, J.T. or Roger Craig, would not have stopped until you got to the end zone. You would have run out the play for another 70 yards.
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“I don’t understand how these guys do it these days,” Rice replied, shaking his head.
Rice was at the recent practice checking out his son, Brenden, a seventh-round rookie receiver from USC who has been turning heads in the camp. Despite his modest draft status, Brenden has taken extensive snaps with the first team, a clear indication of his rising stock.
Jerry, the greatest receiver in NFL history, undoubtedly likes what he sees from his son yet realizes that, to a certain degree, he must contain himself.
“I’m just a dad; I’m here watching,” Rice told USA TODAY Sports. “If he wants to ask questions or he wants to do something, I’m fine with it. But I don’t, like…”
Offer unsolicited advice?
“No, I wait for him,” Rice continued. “If I force it on him like that, he’s not going to take it.”
This reminds me of some times with my 22-year-old son.
“They are going to fight you back,” Rice said. “So, you wait for them. That’s the secret. You wait for them.”
When Jerry went to Brenden’s college games, people constantly asked him to share the advice he offered his son.
“I don’t tell him anything,” Rice would maintain. “Unless he asks.”
If Brenden asks his Hall of Fame dad about the awkward play on the field closest to the family section – when he couldn’t haul in a slant pass that was thrown behind him – he’d get an earful. Jerry, father of Brenden, is still prickly about the details that can fuel greatness.
“That pass you dropped? Turn your body!” Rice said. “Turn your body backwards and make the catch. And you’d make the quarterback look good, too.”
It was great to run into Rice and to reminisce. Before joining USA TODAY Sports in 1993, I covered the San Francisco 49ers as a beat writer for three years, which included witnessing the training camp grind amid the sauna-like conditions in Rocklin, California, that Rice, Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott and others from their star-studded unit endured as they ramped up for the twists and turns of the seasons.
Rice was so meticulous, so competitive, so driven. These factors undoubtedly helped bring out the best in his talent and kept his mental game on edge.
Even now, nearly two decades since the final season of his 20-year career, Rice, 61, is a bit miffed that the 49ers failed pull off the three-peat during the 1990 season. And the Super Bowl 37 loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when Rice played for the Oakland Raiders, is a bad memory.
“It still sits right there in my stomach that we lost that game,” Rice said. “There were so many factors. I mean, they found Barret Robbins (the Raiders center) in a ditch in Mexico.
“And that little Chucky,” he added, referring to then-Bucs coach Jon Gruden. “He was loving it, too.”
Listen to Rice, and it almost sounds like he feels like there was unfinished business.
“I still never played a perfect game,” he insisted.
Really? Rice was Super Bowl 23 MVP, and his 215 receiving yards against the Cincinnati Bengals still stands as the Super Bowl record. He also owns Super Bowl marks for touchdowns in a game (3, vs. the Chargers in Super Bowl 29), career receptions (33), yards (589) and touchdown catches (8). And his career regular-season records include receptions, yards, TDs, 100-yard games, 1,000-yard seasons and consecutive games with a catch.
Then again, he was the guy who might catch 11 passes for 150 yards with 2 TDs on a Sunday, then come to work on Monday in a surly mood, grumbling about missed opportunities.
Let’s just say his standard for perfection is way up there.
I’m wondering whether Rice thinks his legacy turns up the heat on Brenden, who is set to suit up for his second preseason game on Saturday at SoFi Stadium against the Los Angeles Rams.
“There’s always going to be pressure, no matter what, to play in the NFL,” Rice said. “But he tries to be himself and knows it’s not about what his dad did.”
Brenden, who wears No. 82, certainly doesn’t look like a clone of his dad. Jerry, who wore No. 80, had a sleek physique that suggested he wasn’t as strong as he was physically. Brenden, listed at 6-3, 210, is bigger than his father. He has a resemblance closer to Jerry’s teammate, John Taylor (J.T.), whose bulk suggested he wasn’t as fast as he was.
“Sometimes, I have to bring him down to earth, because he feels he’s so much bigger and faster and all those things,” Rice said. “He tries to rub it in my face.
“I say, ‘Look, you need to go look at my stats.’ That brings him back down to earth.”
Regardless, the legend sees Brenden as poised to make his own name.
“He’s a hard worker,” Rice said. “He’s very talented. He wants to do whatever he can to help this team win. And he’s in an ideal situation with Jim Harbaugh. Because they are going to pound that rock and that’s going to open up the passing game.
“Even Tony Romo told him, the offensive coordinator (Greg Roman) likes to run the ball. So, he needs to get down their and dig those safeties out. That’s the way you get on the field. You go down there and you get dirty and make those blocks, and you’ve got a chance of helping the team. It’s like whoever works the hardest, shows what they are capable of doing, is going to get that job.”
Harbaugh, in his first season back in the NFL, lit up when asked about Brenden. The coach insists that draft status – and his famous dad – won’t be a factor when it comes to projecting his potential.
“It doesn’t matter what round a guy was drafted in,” Harbaugh told USA TODAY Sports. “Once they step on that field, that’s out the window. Low draft pick. High draft pick. Free agent. Everybody’s competing. It doesn’t matter what state you’re from, where you are from. The bottom line is this: Competitors welcome at The Bolt.”
That underscores why the coach has been impressed with Brenden.
“I look forward to watching him in practice every day,” Harbaugh said. “He shows up. On the field and on the tape.”
Surely, Brenden landed in a spot that screams opportunity. The Chargers’ top two receivers from recent seasons – crafty and consistent veteran Keenan Allen and big-play artist Mike Williams – departed during the offseason. Told of Jerry’s emphasis on run-blocking being essential in the new system, Harbaugh called it great advice.
“Yeah, receivers that can block. That’s good to hear,” Harbaugh said. “It’s critical. If a guy’s not blocking and giving everything he’s got, is he even going to get the gray T-shirt sweaty? if he’s only giving when the ball’s coming to him…you want to finish the game and have a nice, sweaty T-shirt.”
With approval, of course, from the Hall of Fame father.