Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice knows a thing or two about Super Bowls. The former NFL wide receiver won three Super Bowls as a member of the 49ers and played in a fourth one as a member of the Raiders in 2002.
Rice, who played a total of 20 seasons in the NFL, has been paying close attention to Deflategate and he firmly believes the Patriots knew exactly what was happening with their footballs.
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"I'm going to be point blank, I feel like it's cheating," Rice told The Jim Rome Show recently. "Because you have an edge up on your opponent and its unfortunate that it happened.... I've played in cold weather, I know how hard the football is and you can grip the leather just a little bit better [if it's deflated]."
In a separate interview with KGMZ-FM in San Francisco, Rice flat out said that the Patriots season should have an asterisk next to it if they win the Super Bowl.
"I think you have to really put an asterisk on it, because this is going to follow them, you know, for the rest of their lives, because when you look at it, when people go back and they think about the New England Patriots, they're going to think about these controversies," Rice said, via ESPN.com. "So it's unfortunate. I've always wanted to do things the right way. I didn't want to take any short cuts or anything like that. It's just unfortunate that we're talking about them using underinflated footballs instead of talking about the Super Bowl."
If the Patriots were to beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, it would be the fourth Super Bowl win over Brady's career, tying him with Joe Montana for the most in NFL history. The same Joe Montana who won three Super Bowls with Rice.
Of course, if Brady does win his fourth Lombardi Trophy, Rice likely won't put him in the same echelon of quarterbacks as Montana, since Brady's fourth Super Bowl win will have that asterisk and all.
