After 20 years at the top of his game and facing a final season as 4th receiver with the Denver Broncos, Jerry Rice – the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) has thrown in the towel. Of course, he will almost certainly get a one day contract so that he can retire a 49′er, but by me, he will always be a Raider as I only ever saw him on the field in the Silver and Black (as opposed to TV of film).

Having picked this up on ESPN just now, I will quote from their numbers:

That he was the best receiver ever can’t be argued. The numbers speak for themselves. He played 303 games, caught 1,549 passes for 22,895 yards and had 197 touchdown receptions.

Think about those numbers for a second. Rice averaged 77 catches a season for 20 years. Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Marvin Harrison are considered the game’s best active receivers, but what they’d have to do to catch Rice is staggering. Moss has 574 catches and would have to average 100 catches a year for the next 10 years to catch Rice. That means he would have to play until he was 38. Harrison has 845 catches and he’s 33. To catch Rice, he would have to average 101 catches a year the next seven years and retire at the age of 40. Owens, who has 669 catches would have to average 100 receptions for close to nine seasons to get there.

Nothing is impossible but Rice has set the bar so high, it’s unlikely anyone will catch him.

I, of course, sadly missed his presence in the deficient Raider squad of last year but it was always nice to know Rice was around. The league wont be quite the same without him.