Jerry Rice recently gave an explanation for his illegal use of stickum, says ‘everyone was doing it.’
If you have been thinking that Jerry Rice using stickum during his playing days is bad, his explanation for doing so is even worse.
Jerry Rice was recently on an ESPN video to talk about the evolution of gloves. They also touched on the New England Patriots Super Bowl victory and the controversy behind it because of the deflated footballs during the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. Rice explained that it may not have changed the outcome of the game, but it was still illegal and gave the Patriots a competitive edge. He also says that there should be an asterisk placed by the Patriots’ Super Bowl Championship now.
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He goes on explaining how in cold weather it’s very hard to not only throw the ball, but to catch the ball. So, the balls being slightly deflated would help with that. Then, he let something slip that he probably should not have said. He nonchalantly admits to putting stickum on his gloves to help catch the ball.
What’s even more upsetting than Rice admitting to cheating, is his explanation for it.
Rice already admitted to it being ‘a little bit illegal,’ so what research did he have to do? The use of the substance was banned in 1981, so it was actually ‘a lot illegal.’
The next troubling aspect of this is he says all players did it. Basically throwing all other players under the bus after he stupidly admitted to cheating during his career. Just like a little kid that gets in trouble for doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing and says ‘but mom, everyone was doing it!’
Even if all other players did use the banned substance, he’s saying that all players during his era were cheats then. That’s great, put a huge tainted stain and the entire era of when Rice played. Or, is he just saying that to cover himself?
Regardless of the stickum use, Jerry Rice will still go down as probably the greatest receiver to ever play the game. There is no denying the talent he had and he probably still would have put up the numbers that he did. However, just like Rice said himself about how the Patriots still likely would have beat the Colts anyway, it still gave him a competitive advantage.
It is still cheating.
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