Antonio Brown watch got a bit ugly on Monday, but now we have none other than the GOAT Jerry Rice to put this trolly on the rails and get things back on course. First we had Terrell Owens over the weekend say he’s been in contact with Brown and calling himself a mentor to the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, now Rice is coming in once again to lobby for his own mentorship of Brown.
Rice was a guest on 95.7 The Game’s Joe, Lo, and Dibs to go over Super Bowl week. The questions began with Tom Brady, but as you might expect, the second half of the interview went to Antonio Brown and Rice’s relationship with Brown:
“I communicate back and forth with this guy all the time. We know exactly what he’s all about. Even if he came to the San Francisco 49ers, he’s not going to be one of those guys to come in and really hurt this team. He’s not going to be a bad influence—I can vouch for him. And I don’t even know if we’re gonna get the opportunity to bring him here, but if we do, I’m gonna be right there to mentor this guy, be around him because the only thing he’s been talking about — he’s been talking about this forever— “I want to run the hill with Jerry Rice, I want to work out with Jerry Rice.” I want to pick his brain and see what has made him so successful.” So I think he’s a great football player and he’ll be a great addition to the San Francisco 49ers.”
Rice has reached out to wide receivers before offering to train with them and getting mixed responses. The best one that comes to mind was Rice’s desire to work with then-recently drafted San Francisco 49ers draft pick A.J. Jenkins. Whether it happened or not wasn’t discussed but I don’t believe Jenkins reached out to Rice.
Rice has a point: we don’t know if Brown coming to the 49ers is actually even possible. Right now it seems like the Pittsburgh Steelers are trying to get some leverage back by not shutting the door on Brown by saying they haven’t approved his agent to seek trades.
Brown is almost turning into that fabled kung-fu fighter that has trained with the absolute best. I don’t think I’ve seen so much outreach from the NFL greats to tutor single player like this in quite some time—or to lobby hard to get him out of Pittsburgh. Terrell Owens? Jerry Rice?
What’s next, Randy Moss?