I Remember … when Jerry Rice was a Bronco

On a warm spring evening 15 years ago, the best wide receiver in the history of the National Football League sat perched on a barstool at the Denver Chop House in LoDo, savoring his meal as the NBA playoffs flashed on a nearby television.

“Look who’s over there,” said a friend at my table. He pointed to Jerry Rice, standard bearer for his position, three-time Super Bowl champion, holder of every career receiving record known to man, eating dinner 40 feet away on the other side of the room.

Rice had already joined the Broncos by the time my friends and I shared a restaurant with the personification of football greatness, so it wasn’t a complete shock to see him out and about. What stood out was how he was allowed to quietly enjoy his meal and sip on a beverage.

One thing I’ve learned is that Denver has become pretty cool with celebrity. The days of Colorado newspapers breathlessly reporting on John Elway’s haircuts and meals during his first training camp as a Bronco in 1983 are gone, replaced by casual acknowledgment and an understanding that most with massive fame who come to this state prefer to blend into the crowd to enjoy an evening.

It fit what Rice wanted.

“I’m going to be as low-key as possible,” he said on May 26, 2005 — one day after the Broncos agreed to terms with him.

Come as you are, do what you do best, and we’ll leave you be. Broncos Country let Rice do his thing — wearing a new jersey number, playing in a new time zone. The offensive scheme was familiar and appreciative Broncos fans cheered his every step at training camp.

But the steps were slower. Rice in jersey No. 19 — necessary because Rod Smith had worn No. 80 for a decade and had done nothing to deserve losing it — looked like Michael Jordan in a Washington Wizards uniform.

Superman was mortal.

And that’s why Rice’s time in orange and blue lasted just 103 days.

THE HULLABALOO

The 2005 offseason was already eventful for the Broncos before the 42-year-old Rice showed up.

A few days before Memorial Day, the Broncos unveiled their newest — and oldest — wide receiver via telephone. With all of us in local media already gathered to cover that day’s offseason activities, we crowded around the speakerphone in the back of the media room, bunching together in a sight that would make social-distancing champions shudder if it were replicated today.

As Rice spoke, it was clear that Denver wasn’t his first choice. After spending the previous five seasons with the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks, his ideal curtain call involved returning to the team with which he redefined his position, the San Francisco 49ers.

“I talked about finishing my last year with the 49ers, to have a farewell tour and say goodbye to the fans the right way and that situation didn’t work out for me,” Rice said. “Then it was like, ‘Well, I guess it’s not going to happen.'”

Enter Shanahan, who coached Rice as the 49ers’ offensive coordinator from 1992-94.

“He was very productive [in 2004],” Shanahan said of a season that Rice split between the Raiders and Seahawks. “Even though it was 30 catches, 14.5 yards per (reception), I think his career average is 14.9, so it was a positive. Mainly, when I said he lost a step or two — every year a guy comes inyou’re not really sure if he did lose a step, especially if a guy gets older. I’m sure willing to take a chance on a guy I think is the best player ever to play the game at any position. He brings a lot to the table; we get a chance to see what he can do.”

Rice’s history and performance in 2004 was enough for Shanahan to get him on the telephone.

“All of a sudden Denver came up and I said, ‘Wow, it was meant to be,'” Rice said. “When you look at it, it’s only two and a half hours away. My family can come visit. And it’s close to home. So, things happen for a reason.”

The offseason practices and training-camp sessions attracted more media than had become the norm in the post-Elway years. ESPN was a regular presence chronicling the progress of not only Rice, but rookie running back Maurice Clarett.

But by and large, Rice was the star attraction to the national media. The story of the summer was whether the greatest receiver in NFL history could beat out a horde of young players to be a sub-package wide receiver.

“COUSIN OLIVER”

The national media wasn’t impressed.

“How odd does Jerry Rice look in a No. 19 Broncos jersey? Somewhere between Michael Jordan in a Wizards uniform and Willie Mays as a Met,” wrote Andrew Perloff on SI.com on June 5, four days after the ink dried on the contract and Rice officially became a Bronco. “Rice looked weird in a Seahawks jersey but at least he was still No. 80.

“As several pundits have pointed out recently, Rice is in serious danger of jumping the shark with his 20-year career.

” … If ever a team jumped, it’s the ’05 Broncos. Denver has introduced one new wacky character after another to try to salvage one more shot at glory. Rice is Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch. Ron Dayne is a chubby version [of] Scrappy Doo. And Maurice Clarett is Kazoo, the Martian from The Flintstones, only Fred and Mike Shanahan can see. Unless someone stops him, Shanahan might hire noted show-killer Ted McGinley (Roger from Happy Days) as his offensive coordinator and completely ruin the team.”

Witty? Sure, if you’re a student of 1960s-1980s pop culture. But Perloff was late to the party on his analysis.

Rice was the biggest name brought to the team as a free agent since the Broncos’ back-to-back Super Bowl wins, but Shanahan had been chasing Pro Bowlers and marquee names from a bygone age for years by that point.

Eventual Hall of Famer Andre Reed, ex-All Pros such as Dale Carter, Rob Moore, Chester McGlockton and Eric Davis and Pro Bowlers like Leon Lett, Michael Sinclair, Marco Coleman, Garrison Hearst, Michael Sinclair, Darryll Lewis, Lee Woodall and Ryan McNeil were among the aging veterans Shanahan tapped to try and guide the Broncos back to their 1997-98 peak.

John Lynch proved to be the exception to this rule; he joined the Broncos in his 12th season and made four Pro Bowls. But the rest were quickly forgotten. Some, like Reed, were barely in Denver long enough to learn where the bathrooms at Dove Valley were located; Reed was cut 45 days after signing just before the regular season.

Rice at least lasted over three months. Long enough for plenty of No. 19 jerseys to be sold. You still see some at games from time to time, although they have long since become valuable only as kitsch:

Since you asked: RT @100Broncoholic: @MaseDenver Jerry Rice blue jersey… pic.twitter.com/ZBaxQyR4t5

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) October 13, 2013

Oh, and the No. 19? It was necessary because there was no chance in hell Smith would surrender No. 80 — even though his former teammate, eventual Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, suggested during a satellite-radio interview back then that Smith should surrender his number.

“‘Everybody says you should give it to Jerry,'” recalled Smith, who told the story to reporters during 2005 offseason work. “I said, ‘Why is it his number? So, every No. 80 in the world is his?’ He’s like, ‘Well, the people say you should give it to him, he’s a legend.’

“I said, ‘Sharpe, that’s like somebody saying that this guy over here is a better husband and father than you, why don’t you give him your wife. You know what I’m saying? It don’t make sense!’ We joked about that for a while.”

LOOKING FOR A GEAR THAT WASN’T THERE

As the summer progressed, what didn’t make sense was Rice in a Broncos uniform.

What the cameras and onlookers saw during offseason camps and training camp was not the Rice of old. It was just Old Rice. The spirit was willing. The routes were precise. But the burst was gone. Separation was non-existent.

Rice was never the fastest as a straight-line runner; it was questions about that vertical speed that sent him down to the middle of the first round in 1985, despite ample evidence from the film at Mississippi Valley State that he could catch anything in sight and destroy a defense on his own. But at age 42, his mind and work ethic couldn’t compensate for the ravages of age.

The mile-high elevation exacerbated matters.

“It’s going OK, but I’m still trying to get used to this mile-high air,” Rice said during the July minicamp. “I look at some of the other guys, and they’re having a little difficult time, too. So there’s hope. I’m getting the concepts down. I feel more relaxed now. Now it’s just getting the conditioning in.

“I don’t care what type of work you do down at sea level; once you get here, it’s a whole new ballgame.”

That game went south when Rice was stuck as the No. 4 wide receiver — a role which would have meant being inactive in the regular season, since the best pass-catcher in NFL history wasn’t going to play special teams in his 21st season.

By the time Rice and the Broncos reached the preseason finale, it was clear that even being the No. 3 wide receiver behind Smith and Ashley Lelie was a massive stretch. He caught just two passes for 14 yards in the first three preseason games. The exhibition finale in the sauna that was Sun Devil Stadium on Sept. 2 was the final shot.

He made the 53-man roster but had lost in his bid to be the No. 3 receiver. Rice could stay — if he was content facing being a regular part of the Broncos’ inactives.

No thanks, Rice said, and he announced his retirement in the Broncos’ team meeting room.

SO, WHO BEAT OUT JERRY RICE?

It’s a complicated answer. At the time Rice announced his retirement, it appeared that Darius Watts had taken the No. 3 spot and knocked Rice toward purgatory as the fourth receiver.

But the truth was a bit more muddled.

Watts had as many touchdowns as Rice had receptions in that preseason finale at Arizona – two apiece. And when Rice had seemed to lose the No. 3 receiver spot in training camp, he had lost it to Watts, only to temporarily win it back for the second preseason game.

But when the Broncos faced Miami in the regular-season opener, Charlie Adams was the third receiver. Watts barely saw the field and would finish the season with just two receptions – none of which came after September. Adams was in his fourth season as a Bronco, having gone from the practice squad to the fringe of the 53-man roster before finally getting a shot at extensive snaps at Rice’s expense.

Having Adams be the No. 3 wide receiver was never the plan; he just was there to capitalize and contribute to a Broncos team that was the best of the valley years between the twin peaks of Elway and Manning.

Watts was another story entirely. A second-round pick in 2004, he ranked third among Broncos wide receivers in receptions and receiving yards during his rookie season, trailing Smith and Lelie.

He also had a right hand that he once called “The Claw,” as he told The Denver Post in 2005.

Six years earlier, before his senior season at Banneker High School in College Park, Ga., Watts suffered nerve damage and torn muscles in an automobile accident. By emphasizing his left hand and his body in making receptions, Watts managed to compensate enough to earn a scholarship to Marshall University. Despite having two fingers in his right hand that remained numb, he caught 47 touchdown passes at Marshall, a figure that remains fourth in FBS history.

But making it happen in college is one thing. The NFL was something different. Few remembered the 31 passes or the one touchdown he caught in 2004. It was the two potential fourth-quarter touchdowns he didn’t grab that lingered – a drop against Atlanta on Oct. 31, 2004 and a pass that sailed through his hands four weeks later against Oakland, forcing the Broncos to settle for a Jason Elam field-goal attempt that the Raiders blocked.

Watts is why Rice was a Bronco in the first place. The Broncos needed a No. 3 receiver, and Watts wasn’t enough.

THE AFTERMATH

… Rice eventually signed a one-day contract with the 49ers to retire as a part of the team with which he built his extraordinary resume. He remains as legendary as ever, reportedly crashing weddings in the same dominant fashion he displayed as a player.

… Watts was released at the cut to 53 players in 2006, having lost his grip on a spot to players like David Kircus and then-rookie Brandon Marshall. He spent time with the Giants and the Arena Football League’s Philadelphia Soul before leaving the sport as a player. Eventually, he coached the club football team at MSU Denver.

… Adams was cut in 2006 after the Broncos tried to trade him to Dallas but were forced to recall him because of a failed physical. He briefly played for the Texans before leaving the game and now works as a financial planner.

… Shanahan continued to bring in aging big names to supplement the roster in the following years, most notably defensive linemen like Sam Adams, Kenard Lang and Simeon Rice. Veterans like Smith, Trevor Pryce, Al Wilson and Tom Nalen who had kept the team competitive during the post-Elway years were released or retired. But Shanahan also began putting the team in the hands of younger contributors such as Marshall, quarterback Jay Cutler and offensive tackles Ryan Harris and Ryan Clady. By 2008, the Broncos were back in contention, but a three-game losing streak at the end of the regular season knocked them out of the playoffs and Shanahan was fired. His rebuilding project was summarily scrapped in the three months that followed, and the Broncos’ streak of seasons out of the playoffs extended to five before John Fox, Von Miller, Tim Tebow and friends ended it in 2011.

… By 2012, Rice was no longer the biggest name added to the Broncos in free agency. Peyton Manning took that mantle. And unlike Rice, he had plenty left in the tank — including the best year of his illustrious career, a 2013 campaign that is the finest statistical season ever compiled by a quarterback.