Jerry Rice scores record-breaking touchdown
On this day in 1992, Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers catches his 101st career touchdown reception, breaking the record for most career touchdowns previously held by Steve Largent.
Drafted in 1985 out of Mississippi Valley State University, Rice became a star wide receiver for the 49ers, a team that would dominate professional football throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was voted the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player after the players’-strike-shortened 1987 season, when he led the league in scoring (138 points) and set league records for touchdown receptions (23) and touchdown catches in consecutive games (13). Rice’s primary goal, however, was getting his team to the Super Bowl, which he did the following year. Catching 11 passes for 215 yards and one touchdown, Rice led the 49ers to a 20-16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals and was named MVP of Super Bowl XXIII. Teaming with the 49ers’ star quarterback Joe Montana, Rice collected another Super Bowl ring the following year after a lopsided 55-10 victory over the Denver Broncos.
Rice’s record-breaking 101st career touchdown catch came on a rainy afternoon in San Francisco, during only his eighth season with the NFL. (By contrast, Largent made his 100th TD reception in his 14th season.) With 8:56 left in the game (a 27-3 rout of the Miami Dolphins) Rice made a quick move to get open in the middle of the end zone, where he caught a 12-yard pass from Steve Young. Mobbed by his teammates, he ran off the field in triumph. Two years later, Rice became the NFL’s all-time touchdown leader (127), passing the great Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown.
In Super Bowl XXIV, against the San Diego Chargers, Rice strained his shoulder in the first quarter but still caught 10 passes, three for touchdowns, in the 49ers’ 49-26 victory. Plagued by knee injuries, Rice slowed his record-breaking pace a little, but not completely, in the latter half of the 1990s. He left the 49ers in 2000 to sign with the Oakland Raiders, a team he helped lead to Super Bowl XXXVII in the 2002-03 season. In September 2004, Rice’s incredible streak of consecutive games with a reception ended at 274, a number that confirmed his reputation as the most prolific pass receiver in NFL history. He was subsequently traded to the Seattle Seahawks, for whom he scored his last three touchdown receptions, for a total of 197. Seattle refused to give Rice a starting role, however, and he left the team to sign with the Denver Broncos in 2005. When they offered him a reserve position, Rice made the decision to retire after a 20-year career in pro football.
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