Jerry Rice: Tom Brady can have GOAT status

Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice has at times been called the best player in NFL history, but Rice says he will hand that status over to Tom Brady.

Rice said today on 95.7 The Game that he thought he had a tougher time playing football than Brady, but he will always defer to those who call Brady the greatest.

“I don’t have seven Super Bowl rings, but I think I played in a time when football was more of a contact sport. You see a lot of it now – the players are protected, ”Rice said. “When you’ve got seven rings, you’re doing something right. I think with Brady he still wants to play. He said something about playing until the age of 45. I think he can do it now in this league because the players are so much more protected. So, yes, it can have that GOAT status. Anyway, I never wanted that status.

In 2010, the NFL Network published a ranking of the 100 best players of all time who had Rice No. 1. Another such list today would surely have Brady in mind.