Jerry Rice Talks Rivalry With Deion Sanders on Kevin Hart's 'Cold As Balls'
Jerry Rice took on a lot of defensive backs in his NFL career. But the one defensive back who frustrated him the most is Pro Football Hall of Famer and former teammate Deion Sanders. Rice recently appeared on Kevin Hart's sports talk show Cold As Balls from the Laugh Out Loud Network and talked about how frustrating it was to compete against Sanders.
"I hated that guy, man [Deion Sanders]. Ah, man, we couldn't get along," Rice told Hart. "If Deion was on the opposite side. It was going down the next day. ... Deion was like, one of the fastest defensive backs. I had to double move, triple move – against Sanders – off the line of scrimmage. I had to come to the line with a plan."
As mentioned by Sports Illustrated, Rice and Sanders went head-to-head 10 times with Rice winning six of the battles. But as big of rivals as they were, the two did win a Super Bowl together when they were playing for the San Francisco 49ers in 1994. Sanders only played for the 49ers for one season before joining the Dallas Cowboys. He spent his first five seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, a team that suffered the most when facing Rice. In his career, Rice played 30 games against the Falcons and caught 175 passes for 2,731 yards and 25 touchdowns.
Before Tom Brady, some experts and fans called Rice the greatest NFL player of all time. Along with winning three Super Bowls and being named MVP of Super Bowl XXIII, Rice was named NFL Offensive Player of the Year twice, selected to the Pro Bowl 13 times, the All-Pro Team 11 times and was named to the 1980s and 1990s All-Decade Team. He holds the NFL all-time records in career receptions (1,549), career receiving yards (22,895) career receiving touchdowns (197), total touchdowns (208) and career all-purpose yards (23,546).
Sanders also had a legendary NFL career. He won two Super Bowls and was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1994. Sanders was selected to the All-Pro First team six times as cornerback, once as a punt returner and once as a kick returner. He was selected to the 1990s All-Decade Team twice — once as a cornerback and once as a punt returner.