​Intense work ethic took Jerry Rice to Pro Football Hall of Fame​

 

SAN FRANCISCO-The stories about Jerry Rice's unparalleled work ethic are as much a part of his legend as numbers that made him the NFL's greatest receiver.

​

The young boy who gained his speed by chasing horses. The dedicated son who learned about determination from his father while catching bricks during sweltering Mississippi summers. The teenager sent to the football coach because of the speed he showed running away from a principal while playing hooky. And the frequent 2½-mile uphill sprints that kept him in tiptop shape as an NFL star.

​

For former teammate Steve Young, the story that best describes Rice's drive comes a few weeks after the San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowl in January 1995. Young arrived one day at the team's practice facility to clean out his locker and saw Rice out on the field running sprints and catching passes from the groundskeeper nearly seven months before the start of the next season.

​

"When people talk about Jerry's work ethic and say, 'Oh it's really extreme,' they do it a disservice," Young said. "There's an iron will to it. It's over his dead body. Jerry to the core was driven. You belittle that drive by saying he had just a great work ethic. Most people have an off switch and they choose when to go all out. Jerry didn't have an off switch."