SAN FRANCISCO The Green Bay Packers had already gone throughmost of their repertoire in an effort to stop Jerry Rice.
Double-team. Bump-and-run. Lay back. Rolling zone.
There was only one thing left to try last Sunday and cornerbackMark Lee gave it his best shot in the second quarter.
As Rice headed out of bounds with a 5-yard reception, Lee cockedhis right arm in full view of everyone at chilly Lambeau Field andclubbed Rice across the head.
That didn't work, either.
About an hour and a half later, with the Packers trailing theSan Francisco 49ers 16-12 with 7:32 to play, Rice ran a quick slantfrom the left side.
He caught Joe Montana's pass with his fingers clutching the backhalf of the football.
Then he turned upfield and raced 57 yards to a clinchingtouchdown, splitting the last two defenders and leaving the Packersto ponder - along with everyone else that has played against Rice -if there is really a pulse beating under that No. 80 uniform.
Jerry Rice hasn't just taken the NFL by storm this year. He haslaid seige and burned half of it.
"He is the tallest, fastest, quickest, greatest receiver infootball," Tampa Bay coach Ray Perkins said after Rice had caughtthree TD passes against the Bucs.
The third-year pro has caught at least one touchdown pass ineach of his last 10 regular-season games. If he catches one tonight against the Bears at Candlestick Park, hewill tie a record set in 1951 by Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch of the LosAngeles Rams.
He has caught 15 TD passes this season. If he catches threemore in his three remaining games, he will tie the record fortouchdown receptions in a season, set by Mark Clayton of Miami in1984.
Defenders have done everything to Rice except tie his cleatstogether. He still has 50 catches for 855 yards, which is almostright on his per-game average for 1986, when he caught 86 passes for1,570 yards and didn't have to miss three games because of a strike.
In less than three seasons, he has 185 receptions for 3,352yards and 33 touchdowns.
"The thing that kills you is that he's basically running thesame routes week after week," said Mike Wilson, the 49ers' startingsplit end. "He may line up on a different side of the field or go inmotion, but it's the same patterns."
Rice has everything you look for in a great receiver - height(6-2), size (205 pounds), speed (4.4 over 40 yards), cutting ability,work ethic and enormous hands.
The hands are what you notice first. They seem to have beenstretched beyond all proportion.
"I think all that bricklaying might have helped," Rice said.
When he was a teenager, his father, a mason, would take him tojob sites with two older brothers.
"I'd get on the scaffolding about 20 feet up there and they'dthrow the bricks at me," Rice said.
Bricks are expensive when you have eight children to clothe andfeed. Jerry learned not to drop many.
His NFL ascent was neither sudden nor unexpected. In 1985, hewas rookie of the year. In 1986, he was All-Pro.
"Sometimes I still can't believe what's happened," he said.
It seems amazing that Rice never played organized football untilhe was 16 , and it took a good old-fashioned strapping to push himinto the game.
"I had decided to take a day off from high school and theassistant principal found me, slipped up behind me and scared me,"Rice recalled. "I took off running."
When Rice came back to school the next day, the assistantprincipal not only administered six lashes with a leather belt -standard operating procedure in the discipline-tough Crawford, Miss.(pop. 900), schools - but he also was so impressed with Jerry'sgetaway speed that he reported him to the football coach.
It may sound like something out of a Grade B movie, but that'show it began. Unable to get a scholarship to nearby MississippiState or any other major university, Rice attended Mississippi ValleyState, a small, virtually all-black school with a football team thatthrew the ball about 60 times a game.
Rice made most of the catches.
One Saturday afternoon in 1984 at Houston, where the 49ers wereawaiting a Sunday game against the Oilers, coach Bill Walsh flippedon his hotel television set and was treated to highlights of Riceravaging an alleged secondary.
"I could see immediately the special talent he had," Walsh said."Of course he was from a small college, but that didn't matter. If aman can dominate at the small-college level, he can be a legitimateNFL player. And Jerry dominated his league."
After the season, 49ers scout Billy Wilson and quarterback coachPaul Hackett (now with the Dallas Cowboys) gave Rice a workout.
Wilson rated him behind Wisconsin's Al Toon. Hackett judged himthe third best senior receiver, behind Toon and Miami's Eddie Brown.
Walsh wanted one of the three. Toon went 10th in the draft(Jets); Brown was the 13th pick (Bengals). The 49ers, selectinglast because they were Super Bowl champions, traded up to No. 16 withNew England and grabbed Rice.
Walsh breathed a sigh on draft day. "We felt certain the Cowboyswould take him at No. 17," he said.
It wasn't an easy first season for Rice. By mid-season he haddropped a flood of passes, including four that could have gone fortouchdowns.
"Now that I look back on it, I think it was because I was unableto concentrate on the catches," Rice said. "The offense was socomplicated, I was thinking about my routes instead of the balls."
Freddie Solomon, whom Rice was to drive into retirement, helpedRice almost every day after practice.
"That surprised me because I was after his job. But Freddie wasthe main person who helped me get through that," Rice said. "He justhelped me feel more confident when I was really down. He's a greatperson."
On Dec. 9, 1985, in a game against the Los Angeles Rams, Ricehad his coming-out party. He caught 10 passes for 241 yards,including a 66-yard TD from Montana.
In 1986 he had five 100-yard games the first 10 weeks. He wasdoing well, but not well enough for receivers coach Denny Green.
Finally, even Green was impressed by a Monday night game atWashington on Nov. 17.
"That was the game that told me how great he was," Green said."Darrell Green, who is one of the best cornerbacks in the game, hadcome out to stick him on almost every play. It was like a war zoneout there. But Jerry gave it right back to him. He wasn'tintimidated in the least."
The 49ers lost the game, but Rice caught 12 passes for 204yards.
