The news broke shortly before Saturday's Pro Football Hall of Fame vote that Jerry Rice had asked former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo to present him into the Hall when Rice gets inducted this August.
In fact, Rice asked Eddie D to do this nearly ten years ago. Sounds like Jerry had a pretty good idea he was going to get voted in.
“It was at Nikki’s wedding,” DeBartolo told Yahoo Sports, referring to his youngest daughter's wedding in March of 2000. “We were sitting there during the reception, and Jerry asked me to be his (Pro Football Hall of Fame) presenter. I was floored. I was an emotional wreck, and I was half-crocked. I figured, ‘Maybe he had too much wine.’”
Oh, to have the kind of owner again who goes around using expressions like "half-crocked".
Rice will be the fourth 49er great Eddie will have had the privilege of presenting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "I've had the honor of presenting Joe (Montana) and Fred Dean and Bill Walsh and now Jerry," DeBartolo told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. "That's quite a foursome."
Rice's Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be on Saturday, August 7 in Canton, Ohio. Cheap seats begin at $30, if you're thinking of making the pilgrimage.
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who would remind you of Dennis Miller's warning about Canton, Ohio -- "Ironically, you cannot get any good Cantonese food in this town."
