INTERVIEW-NFL-Hall of Famer Rice unfazed as receivers chase his records

Jerry Rice redefined the receiver position during his NFL career and the Hall of Famer can only laugh when he thinks about how his astounding offensive numbers would have been even more staggering had he played in the current era.

Rice retired in 2004 after a 20-year career spent mostly with the San Francisco 49ers and remains the most prolific wide receiver in NFL history despite playing long before the league-wide shift to pass-happy offenses. "I probably would've doubled everything," Rice joked in a telephone interview with Reuters to promote his partnership with Rice-A-Roni.

"But it's a different game now. Players are more protected. I used to look forward to physical bump and run down the field and stuff like that and you are not seeing a lot right now and you can't target players. "When I played, if I was on the left side and if the ball was not even being thrown to me on the left side I was still getting hit over there and now you can't do that."

Despite not playing during the aerial evolution that is sweeping the NFL, Rice still owns virtually every significant NFL receiving mark, including most touchdowns (208), receptions (1,549), yards receiving (22,895) and touchdown receptions (197). The three-time Super Bowl champion is more than comfortable with his legacy and would not be bothered if one of his many records were to fall, even though they all appear to be secure for the foreseeable future.

"If you break one then I got 36 more, it is okay, that's not a problem," said Rice. "Records are meant to be broken. So if someone should break one of my records I'm the first one to congratulate that individual." The 56-year-old Rice was even on hand at a recent game to congratulate Arizona Cardinals wide receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, after he passed Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez to move into second place on the all-time receptions list.

Fitzgerald may have Rice looking over his shoulder but the 36-year-old Cardinals receiver, who has flirted with retirement in recent years, would need to play at a high level for a couple more seasons to take over the top spot on the receptions list. For anyone to force an overhaul of the receiving categories in the NFL record book they would need to steer clear of injury, which is no easy feat in a hard-hitting game that takes a toll on the body.

As the NFL works on a new collective bargaining agreement there are calls for the league to shorten its preseason slate of exhibition games where top players are withheld in a bid to avoid injury. But Rice feels shortening the exhibition season in favor of either a longer regular season or expanded playoff format could prove more harmful than good when it comes to keeping players safe.

"I wanted to play every (preseason) game," said Rice. "You hear players talk about maybe they need to just have one of two games but you look at all the injuries once the season starts because the speed picks up. "If you don't get that during the preseason and you just try to up that tempo during the regular season you are going to get injured and I think that's why you are seeing a lot of that happen right now."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)