http://yfrog.com/07cuppj Halftime show of HOF game. Collingsworth interviewing Rice reflects on SB when the 49'ers beat the Bengals. Rice says something to the effect of "this ring?" and flashes it to America. It just happens it's on his middle finger. Priceless.
I wish I had seen this live but I was in another room tending to my 1-year old. I have to think that Rice did this on purpose, but I haven't the foggiest idea why. I mean, could he possibly be so dumb as to have put it on his middle finger not understanding the significance of that particular digit? We know the guy is lacking in class what with making the Seahawks take the number 80 out of retirement so that he could wear it. What a colossal joke that was. To Steve Largent's great credit, he okayed it. However, you know deep down inside, Largent was probably steaming about it.
What a fuckin' diva this Rice guy is... I thought his acceptance speech was pretty potent. The GOAT receiver, by a long stretch, one of the greatest athletes of all time, stating that he didn't enjoy playing football because he was so afraid of failure. I bet that's true for a lot of athletes who wouldn't put it in such frank terms. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady strike me as guys who might not particularly enjoy winning, but are terrified of losing. If you watch each of them, their emotional reactions to good plays are much less extreme than their emotional reactions to bad plays. Maybe that's the common bond among all the truly great athletes: being so pants-shittingly scared of failure that you take every possible precaution to avoid it. Jordan, Woods, Armstrong... pussies, all.