Jerry Rice Biography

American football wide receiver Jerry Rice was born in 1962 in Crawford, Mississippi. Legend has it that a fortuitous run-in with his high school principal as a teenager led to an unusual consequence for his absence from classes and raucous behavior; according to the story, the principal gave him the choice of joining the football team or facing other consequences, and Jerry chose football.

Whether the story is true or not may be irrelevant; for Jerry Rice joined the high school football team and distinguished himself as one of their best players. His talents led to a scholarship at Mississippi Valley State University, where he excelled as the team’s receiver and eventually caught the attention of the San Francisco 49ers, who drafted him and with whom Rice stayed until he switched to the Oakland Raiders, but not before bringing home three Super Bowl championships for the 49ers. In 2004, Jerry Rice was traded to the Seattle Seahawks, and then entered retirement in 2006. To date, he is considered among the greatest wide receivers in the history of the sport, and among the greatest NFL players in football history.

Since his retirement, Jerry Rice has remained a prominent figure in the media, appearing in a number of commercials (for Gatorade, Visa, Zaxby’s, and All Sport, to name a few.) He has also appeared in cameos on the television shows One Tree Hill, Rules of Engagement, and The Class, and competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2005-2006, reaching the final two before losing to Drew Lachey. Rice is also the author of two biographies, Go Long: My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame, and Rice.

Jerry Rice is also an avid golfer, having played for two decades, and he recently began competing in a number of tournaments. Most recently, he competed on the Nationwide Tour in the Fresh Express Classic at TPC Stonebrae.