Chargers rookie wide receiver Brenden Rice was disappointed when he wasn’t drafted until the seventh round, but someone else was even more disappointed: Jerry Rice, Brenden’s father, who is widely considered the greatest wide receiver in NFL history.
Brenden said at the Chargers’ rookie minicamp that he found it “very frustrating” to last until the seventh round, but his father was even more upset than he was.
“My dad was hot, my dad was hot,” he said. “The first words he said were, ‘Time to go to work, I’ll be with you every step of the way, I’ll be involved in all your training from now on, we’ve got a lot of people to prove wrong.’ “
Brenden said Jerry told him to make the rest of the league regret abandoning him.
“He said, ‘Of course not, we’re going to take it to a different level. These guys are going to feel us,'” Brenden Rice said.
Brenden said he watches film of his father all the time, but thinks they are different as athletes and that he doesn’t necessarily model himself after his father’s game. But he knew that early in Jerry’s career he received some criticism for not being ready for the NFL and said he hopes to be a better rookie than his father.
“I heard his rookie season in the NFL wasn’t good,” Brenden said of Jerry. “I have to go after him.”
