KIRKLAND – Hey, Koren Robinson.
Want to be a great receiver instead of just paying it lip service?
Then watch Jerry Rice.
He might not be the threat he once was, but you can learn things from just being around him.
The guy’s the greatest receiver who ever lived. He didn’t get that way just showing up for practice.
It took work. It took dedication. It took discipline. It took attention to detail. It took knowing your opponent. It took knowing your body. It took eating the right food and getting the proper rest. It took so many things you haven’t even considered because you think you can do it on talent alone.
You can’t.
The great ones understand that. Like Michael Jordan in basketball. He practiced as hard as he played. Like Roger Clemens in baseball. He’s fanatical about his training.
And like your new teammate, Jerry Rice.
He’s 42 years old, Koren. He’s been playing pro football for almost as many years as you are old. And last year, at the age of 41, his numbers were almost identical to yours.
Think about that Koren. Think about all the hits he’s taken. Think about all the defenders he’s made look foolish. Think about all the yards he’s gained and all the touchdowns he’s scored.
Twenty years, Koren. Think about that. The man is in his 20th year of playing professional football.
You’re what, 24? What’d you think you’ll be doing when you’re 42? Likely retired and enjoying the good life? But to attain the good life, it takes work. It takes doing what Jerry Rice has done all these years.
So watch him, Koren. Watch him and take notes. Watch him from the moment he walks into the locker room each day for practice.
Watch how he walks, how he carries himself, how he interacts with his teammates, how he gets taped, how he puts on his pads, how he pulls on his uniform, how he ties his shoes.
You laugh? Don’t. You might just learn some little trick that’ll help you.
What was it Bill Walton or some other UCLA player picked up from coach John Wooden. How to double-knot his shoe laces so they wouldn’t come undone during practice and waste time retying them.
Little things like that make for efficiency. Getting the most out of a workout.
The great ones know every trick on how to gain an edge.
Watch Rice during meetings, Koren. Watch him during film sessions. Watch him critique himself.
Nate Singleton has been in the room with Rice during those sessions. “It didn’t matter if he scored three or four touchdowns (the previous week),” said Singleton, a backup wide receiver with the San Francisco 49ers from 1993-96, “he wanted to run the perfect route, catch every ball thrown to him.”
So Rice was hard on himself? “Absolutely,” said Singleton, who now train players for the NFL through a sports enhancement program in Louisiana. “He wanted to try to make the whole (receiving) unit better.”
But the one thing that Rice did that stood out above everything else, the one thing Singleton took with him into his current career was his work ethic.
“I thought I worked hard, I thought I prepared well,” Singleton said, “but when you see this guy go to work your thought processes change because he’s at such a high level.”
Do you know what drove Rice to push himself so hard, Koren? Money? Fame?
Neither.
It was fear. “He was afraid of losing his job,” Singleton said. “He never let anyone outwork him.”
Imagine that, Koren. The greatest receiver of all time never thought he had it made for one moment.
That’s a good thing to keep in mind. A good motivational tool to take to work with you. But how many pro athletes ever truly believe that someone is going to come along and take their job before they’re ready to give it up?
It can happen to anyone, Koren. Rice had become a forgotten man in the Oakland receiving corps this season. In the last two games, the Raiders had thrown 75 passes. One – a “hail Mary” – came his way.
Was management trying to tell him something? Trying to frustrate him so that he’d want out? If that was the goal, they accomplished it.
Raider players, I am told, “adored” Rice. And as he was cleaning out his locker Monday, many of them came up and asked for his autograph.
Now he’s your teammate, Koren. Watch him and learn. Ask him questions. He has vast knowledge of how to play the game and he said at his press conference here Tuesday that he enjoys passing it along to young guys.
So listen up, Koren. Not only you, but all your teammates. Look and listen.
Listen to a man who knows how to do it. A man who told Bay Area writers recently that he still loves team meetings, still loves waking up on Sunday morning with butterflies in his stomach, a man who still prepares himself as assiduously as he did when he came into the NFL in 1985, a man who each season tries to do something to improve his game. This year it was putting on muscle and he came to training camp 20 pounds heavier.
Do the little things, Koren. The things that don’t seem to matter to most but which do matter to the greats.
Like the uniform. How it feels on his body is important to Rice. Sometimes he wears pants with a 32-inch waist. Sometimes, 34. Sometimes, 36. Sounds silly, but if it works for him …
The body in that uniform is important to the Seahawks. Coach Mike Holmgren made it clear that Jerry Rice is here not to be a mentor to young players, but “to catch balls and help us win.”
Not that the coach is discounting the influence Rice will have on younger players. His aura, his presence will be felt the moment he walks into the locker room today. There’ll be a lot of wide eyes, a lot of quiet looks, a lot of “I’m in the presence of greatness.”
Watch him, Koren. Watch him run his routes. Watch, especially, how he catches the ball. You’ve had a little problem with that. Rice, too, dropped a lot of balls in his first year or two in the NFL.
Watch him after practice. Watch and see if he doesn’t stick around to catch more balls. When he was the 49ers offensive coordinator, Holmgren often had to chase him off the field. “If our young guys watch that (his work ethic), they’ll be better,” Holmgren said.
Talk to him about his diet, Koren. Does he have any food he eschews?
To reach the age of 42 and to still be playing, I doubt that he’s mistreated his body, Koren. Can you say the same thing?
Listen, watch and learn, Koren.
Jerry Rice just might show you how to get to the Super Bowl.
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