On the top of Alameda Newspaper Group's sports page Friday, columnist Monte Poole called for the retirement of Rice. While Poole stressed Rice leaving the game in a respectable way, it is still no one's place to tell the greatest receiver of all time when it's time to retire. Rice deserves more respect than that. Sunday, Fox Sports commentator Bill Maas described watching Rice play at this stage in his career to watching Larry Holmes fight late in the boxer's career. Maas often commented that a younger Jerry Rice would be able to make certain plays the '99 version could not.
Rice deserves more respect than that.
As evidence of the respect Rice demands, he proceeded to scorch the Cincinnati Bengals defense for 157 yards on nine catches and added two touchdowns. Maybe he was trying to prove all the skeptics wrong or maybe he was just doing what Jerry Rice does best. If No. 80 wants to stand in the 49er huddle again next season, then more power to him. If he wants to stick around another few years after that, I hope his health will allow him to do so. Bay Area football fans owe Rice at least that much.