SAN DIEGO – For once, Jerry Rice was on the losing end of a Super Bowl.
“It’s going to be hard to deal with but that’s something that you have to stare right in the face,” said Rice after his Raiders were manhandled by Tampa Bay, 48-21, in Super Bowl XXXVII last night at Qualcomm Stadium. Rice had won all three Super Bowls he played in while wearing a 49ers jersey.
The amazing veteran receiver admitted that a Super Bowl setback earlier in his career would have sent him into a damaging emotional funk. But with the benefit of age and maturity, Rice said he can simply view last night’s debacle for what it was – a singularly poor performance.
“You know you didn’t get the job done and, hopefully, you get the opportunity again,” said Rice, promising a return this fall to Oakland. Gracious and composed in defeat, Rice didn’t minimize the last pain of losing football’s ultimate game.
“It’s tough,” he said. “It’s going to be hard to swallow. This is going to be with a lot of guys for a long, long time.”
Rice caught five balls for a team-high 77 yards. His 48-yard scoring catch with 6:06 left in the game brought Oakland within 34-21. That scoring grab also put Rice into the records books as the oldest player to score a Super Bowl TD. He was 40 years, three months and 13 days old last night, eclipsing the previous mark set by Denver QB John Elway.
But aside from that long score, the game-breaking plays eluded Rice and the Raiders all night.
“They matched up really well with us,” Raiders QB Rich Gannon said. “Like I said, we didn’t make many big plays. When we tried to run the ball, we had no success. I think we had about 18 yards rushing.”
The Rice TD pass was far too little and way too late for the Raiders, who might now have to rebuild their veteran team. The Raiders are sure to take some major salary cap hits in the off season but Rice was in no mood to talk football dollars and cents last night.
“I don’t want to talk about the salary cap. The salary cap had nothing to with what went down today,” Rice said. “It didn’t happen for me today. It just didn’t click.”