For the 49ers and Jerry Rice, It's. . .CATCH 22

By T.J. SIMERS

Dec. 15, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO —

The greatest wide receiver to ever play the game, one of the four or five best football players, according to Bill Walsh, to ever pull on an NFL uniform, Jerry Rice sat before Dr. Gary Losse nervous, uncertain and deeply concerned.

“Which made him a very ordinary average patient,” Losse said.

Hard to imagine Jerry Rice, so sure-handed, so unstoppable, so smooth, ever being described as ordinary or average, especially now hours before his Superman return to the field faster than any other football player sent limping into reconstructive knee surgery.

“Doesn’t matter who it is,” said Losse, the San Diego Chargers’ team physician called in for a second opinion to clear Rice for tonight’s San Francisco 49er game against the Denver Broncos, which will also include the retirement of former quarterback Joe Montana’s jersey.

“And you have to understand, I’m not sure I’ve ever met such a great athlete as Jerry Rice who came to me with no entourage, no pretensions, no airs about him--just a bright, down-to-earth good guy who has worked and pushed himself so hard for this moment. But it doesn’t matter who you are, male or female, superstar or not, there’s one more hurdle to jump, and that’s getting hit again in that knee.”

In practice this week his teammates reacted like loyal subjects, backing away from serious contact lest their own careers be cut short from doing the unforgivable and injuring Rice again. It became so obvious that Rice joked seriously about having to pay his teammates to cover him properly and simulate game-like conditions.

Last Monday, the players’ day off, Rice stepped into the empty 49er locker room and pulled on his full uniform, including shoulder pads, thigh pads, and an uncomfortable brace for his left knee--something the 49er organization has insisted he wear.

“I needed to get that feel in full pads,” said Rice, so impatient early on that he sawed off his own cast in the middle of the night weeks before doctors had planned to remove it. “It’s been a long time coming. . . . but to have that uniform on felt strange.”

Accompanied by Jerry Attaway, the team’s aptly named physical development coordinator, Rice began running around the practice field last Monday, oblivious to the rain and the stares of coaches and staff from behind the facility’s windows. He took his place on the line of scrimmage and ran pass routes, cutting left and right, imagining himself playing in a game and demanding Attaway beat on him with pads, high and low.

“Whoosh, back and forth,” says 49er Coach Steve Mariucci, his own head swinging from window to window in his office to demonstrate the difficulty he had in spying on his prized receiver. “He’s on a mission to be healthy and to play.”

For 12 years Rice played without interruption, not missing a game, catching a pass in 175 consecutive contests, and then it all stopped Aug. 31, dragged down by his facemask by Tampa Bay defender Warren Sapp, tearing two knee ligaments and damaging cartilage.

His season was over, but in deference to who he is and the motivation required to rehabilitate his body, the 49ers chose not to put him on injured reserve, which would have officially ended his season. They never thought it possible, but here on Dec. 15, 106 days since lying on the ground writhing in pain, Rice is ready to throw a scare once again into cornerbacks everywhere in the NFL.

First he must overcome that last hurdle, that uneasiness, Losse said, that can become a mountain of doubt for the most confident athlete.

“I would guess he will make only a token appearance,” said Walsh, the genius who designed the offensive system to showcase the talents of Rice and Montana. “I don’t expect to see him catching any passes breaking into the middle of the field, but I’m sure they will make sure he catches the ball.”

No Time Like the Present

But should Rice be playing at all tonight, knowing now that no one has ever come back so quickly to subject himself to such violence?

Like everyone else, that’s what Rice wanted to know when he visited Losse. “He was concerned about being the first to come back so early, but I could show him several patients who have done the same thing, only they don’t have such notoriety or won’t be doing it on Monday night TV.

“John Friesz, quarterback for the Chargers, had an injury very similar to Jerry’s [in an exhibition game] and he was ready to come back in December, but the team had put him on injured reserve. That happens a lot.”

But why tonight, why not take advantage of a few more weeks of rehabilitation before the playoffs? Is this some grandstand plan on his part to share the Monday night TV spotlight with Montana? Is this about ego and becoming known as the athlete to return the fastest from reconstructive knee surgery? Is this about a prime-time athlete feeling left out as his team goes on to excel?

“There’s no doubt about it; some of that is involved,” 49er linebacker Gary Plummer said. “Some of that is goal-setting, and maybe he does set a standard for how soon people come back--until someone broke the sound barrier, who knew? That’s how competitive he is.

“A lot of it is he saw us playing well without him, and there is a certain insecurity in all of us athletes, and I’m sure most of all he wanted to come back and be a part of what’s going on here.”

But is his knee ready to take the hit?

“If I OK him medically ready to play one play, he can play 50 plays,” Losse said. “You don’t clear someone for just one play because who knows what can happen on one play? If I didn’t think he could hold up, I wouldn’t allow him to play even one play.

“Athletes aren’t healing quicker, what’s changed is the techniques we now use with the scope on the knee. These procedures allow us to provide stronger ligaments which tolerate more motion and weight bearing and less weeks of therapy. We operate and we want the patient to start walking immediately. We call it ‘inhibition’--if you don’t use it, you lose it.

“To explain it better, if you sprain an ankle and put it in a cast for six weeks, or sprain an ankle and apply ice and move it and try and walk, which way allows for the quicker return? After the cast comes off, you have to build up strength again, while you’ve been doing that all along the other way.”

Losse said there is a certain amount of time required for healing, but he said they have learned that exercise stimulates the healing process.

“Once an athlete gets full range of motion and strength, waiting two more weeks or two more months is not going to make it that much stronger. You have to get to that certain level, which Jerry appears to have reached, but waiting another month isn’t going to make that much difference.”

There are some people within the 49er organization who would have preferred waiting until the first round of the playoffs--three weeks from now--before seeing Rice on the field again. But they lack medical credentials. A decision already has been made not to allow him to play next week on the artificial turf in Seattle, and had Carolina defeated Green Bay on Sunday, reducing the importance of this game, Rice might have been kept out.

But who would have had the guts to tell Rice to remain inactive against Denver? “I would have done it by telephone,” Mariucci said. “Long distance.”

Rice already has expressed disappointment at the number of practice plays he received this week, which is expected to limit his playing time to 10 to 15 plays, and mostly in goal-line situations.

“It’s going to be as good as a normal knee, keeping in mind the risk of playing football no matter what the situation,” Losse said. “You stick out your leg in front of a car on the freeway, and whether the knee is reconstructed or not, there’s going to be considerable damage. It comes with the game.”

Until last week, the 49ers had made changes in their offense to protect quarterback Steve Young, who had suffered a serious concussion, preventing him from scrambling as much as he was accustomed. Now the effort is being made to call safe sideline passing routes for Rice, to slowly reintroduce him to the game.

“The OK by the physicians to allow him to play again is almost startling,” Walsh said. “I’m sure it will work out all right, but I hate to think of a defensive back crushing on top of him, putting stress on that joint and the ligaments.”

Rice has had the same concerns the past few days, at times, even sounding like a man with second thoughts about running into a Denver defender. Early in his practice week he was begging for more practice repetitions, but by week’s end, like everyone else he was preaching caution.

“He was worried that he had worked so hard on his knee that he had forgot to work as much on the other one,” Losse said. “If he plays this week or waits until next year, he still has to have that computer in his brain get that image of that first hit and then bounce up and realize he is all right. When that happens to any athlete, then you see even more progress in a patient’s development.”

Like Rice, teammate Rod Woodson is considered one of the finest players in NFL history, and like Rice he underwent reconstructive knee surgery two years ago early in the season and pushed himself to return in time to play in the Super Bowl. He made it, but as a result, he suffered further problems with his knee, ultimately setting him back.

“No matter how much he is ready, the knee still takes time,” Woodson said. “It’s a process.”

It already has been a long process, one attacked with trademark competitiveness by Rice, who since being injured has taken only one day off to rest his knee.

“Jerry’s superhuman, and that’s it,” said 49er safety Tim McDonald, walking away, and like many of his teammates, tired of talking about Rice’s phenomenal recovery.

The Legend Continues

But this is something special because it adds another chapter to a career already brimming with unparalleled accomplishments, such as scoring more touchdowns than any other player in the game--165--catching more passes than any other player--1,054--for more yards than anyone else--16,415.

He caught 55 passes from Montana for touchdowns, 74 more from Steve Young, and as Mariucci said, “I’m anxious to see when Steve goes back to pass for the first time if he’s just eyeballing number 80 all the way down the field.”

Looking down field with the choice of throwing the ball to Terrell Owens, J.J. Stokes and Jerry Rice, what do you think?

“I want to catch the ball again; I busted my butt to come back,” Rice said. “There were hard times, tough times when I felt I was not going to be able to get there, but I just kept at it and I’ve done my part.

“I have to be smart about this and I realize it’s not going to be every down. I don’t want any major setbacks, but I’m curious to see how everything will respond once I get hit. That’s what’s been on my mind . . . there’s no way to prepare for that, except going out there and having it happen.”

And when it does, Rice going down in a heap and then bouncing to his feet, the collective sigh rising from 3Com Park will undoubtedly rival the tremendous noise that will be generated by his introduction before the game.

“It’s really thrilling stuff involving a very special athlete,” Mariucci said. “Before becoming coach here, I first met him at the Pro Bowl, and the guy had two tackles on kickoffs. He’s a football player with a work ethic like no other with a tremendous impact on people.

“I had a phone call last week from a friend who told me about a 14-year-old youngster who was dying of cancer and whose last request was to talk with Jerry Rice. And so Jerry talked with him,” said Mariucci, pausing to control his emotions. “Geez, what can I tell you? I’m not the only one in awe of Jerry Rice.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

He’s Back

Comparing the 49ers’ offense this year without Jerry Rice to last year with him: 1996

Yards per rush: 4.1

Passer rating: 88.0

Completion percentage: 65.1

Touchdown receptions: 1.5

Yards per catch: 10.8

1997

Yards per rush: 3.8

Passer rating: 95.9Completion percentage: 65.2

Touchdown receptions: 1.4