NFL History: 30 players fans loved to loathe: 9. Jerry Rice
From a statical standpoint from the wide receiver position, there was no one who was a bigger headache to fans across the world than Jerry Rice.
For what felt like an eternity, Rice wasn’t just the best wide receiver in the league he was arguably the best player in the NFL. For 11 straight seasons, Rice recorded over 1,000 receiving yards. Sunday after Sunday, defensive coordinators threw out their best defensive game plan which included double and triple-teaming Rice. But while fans sat in their seats and watched as a ball was thrown in the direction of Rice who was covered by three men, they thought to themselves that there was simply no way Rice could make that ca…
Yet, before they could even finish their sentence, Rice was out jumping them all before waltzing into the end zone. As fans came to the conclusion that they would have to suffer through numerous years of Rice dominating their childhood teams, fans decided to wait him out. But a funny thing happened. Even as Rice aged, he was an otherworldly player. At the age of 39, Rice piled up 1,139 yards. Still, fans looked at this positively. With his 40th birthday coming up, there was no way that he could do it again right? Wrong. Rice went for 1,211 yards the following year.
With each touchdown catch and monster game on the field, fans only continued to hate Rice that much more.