49ers’ Jerry Rice Reaps Belated Media Attention

Jerry Rice began to reap the benefits today of being named Most Valuable Player in the Super Bowl, but again he said he’s been obscured by the higher profiles of Joe Montana and Bill Walsh.

Rice, who caught 11 passes for 215 yards as the San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 20-16 eight days ago, arrived here to receive for the second time the sports car awarded him by Sport Magazine. The first time was a week ago.

He was hardly starved for attention, sitting down for interviews with nearly a dozen reporters, then sitting for individual television interviews.

But amid all that, he still said in his quiet way that he believed his achievements in the game had been overshadowed by the attention paid to Walsh’s retirement as coach and to Montana for quarterbacking the 92-yard drive that won the game in the final three minutes.

‘Didn’t Get Coverage I Deserved’

“I went back to the Bay Area and I felt like I didn’t get the coverage I deserved,” Rice said.

“I don’t think it was racism. Maybe it was because of Bill Walsh retiring or maybe because of Joe Montana, but somewhere, Jerry Rice got lost in the shuffle. I expected to get a little more respect.”

Rice made similar remarks last week, telling a San Francisco television station that if it had been Montana and Dwight Clark making the plays instead of Montana and Rice, they would have gotten more attention.

“If it were Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, it would have been headlines all over,” he said, adding “I’m not saying it’s racism.” But when asked if he thought racism was involved, he replied: “Yeah, I would say so.” Today, he said he didn’t think racism was involved, but added: “What I said needed to be said.”