Jerry Rice Says Tom Brady Can Have 'GOAT Status' After Winning 7th Super Bowl

Jerry Rice is ready to pass the torch.

Rice has long been up against legendary quarterback Tom Brady in the conversation to be crowned the greatest player in NFL history, but the Hall of Fame wide receiver said Monday that Brady has earned it.

"When you got seven rings, you're doing something right," he told 95.7 The Game (at the 40-second mark). "I think with Brady, he still wants to play. He said something about playing until he's 45. I think he can do it now in this league because players are so much more protected. So, yeah, he can have that GOAT status. I never wanted that status anyhow." 

Rice did note that he believed he played in a more difficult time for football, citing the protection that players have now, but he did defer to Brady, who won his seventh title in 10 Super Bowl appearances to cap his first season spent with a team besides the New England Patriots.

The 58-year-old has brushed off the GOAT debate in the past. When Randy Moss claimed the receiver title for himself back in December, Rice said his focus was to win championships (h/t David Bonilla of 49ers Web Zone). 

Still, Rice's resume makes him a contender for the title. He collected 22,895 yards and 197 touchdowns on 1,549 receptions—all NFL records—through 20 years in the league. In NFL Network's 2010 ranking of the top 100 players of all time, Rice topped the list (h/t Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk). Back then, Brady had the same number of Super Bowl rings: three. 

A decade later, things might look a bit different at the top of the list as Brady continues to further entrench himself in NFL history.

After Sunday's Super Bowl, Brady owns 13 championship records, including decades with a Super Bowl win (three), Super Bowl MVP trophies (five), and Super Bowl wins (seven) and appearances (10) themselves (h/t John Breech of CBS Sports). 

That's not even counting his three Super Bowl game records or his dozens of regular-season records. And with Brady intent on playing for the foreseeable future, there's a high chance the 43-year-old will continue to add to those numbers and further cement his GOAT status.