bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part two)))


day two: wide receiver

the pick: jerry rice

my turn to go first. this may be the least contentious of any post we have in this series, because it's the one pick i can, without a doubt, predict that chris would have made himself. the stats that chris poo-pooed on day one are essential to this conversation, though, because athletically, "the greatest wide receiver that ever lived" doesn't wow you with any one thing he did. his numbers, though, and his measurable successes are unparalleled and they are as follows:

1549 receptions - first all time (447 ahead of second place)
22895 receiving yards - first all time (almost 8,000 yards ahead of second place)
197 receiving touchdowns - first all time (45 ahead of second place)
13 pro bowls
12 all pros

also, i found this to be fairly significant to the overall goal of this series of posts (for my team to beat chris' team)...from 1989 to 1996 jerry rice faced off with deion sanders' teams 10 times. rice had 60 catches for 1,051 yards and eleven touchdowns in those games. not too shabby. we have already established that if rice caught the ball with deion on the cover, there would be little to no chance that sanders could tackle him after the catch, which i am sure accounts for some of these inflated numbers against perhaps "the greatest athlete to ever put on a professional uniform."

who you taking, tom?

chris: there is no comparison. jerry rice is the greatest. it took me a long time to decide who i would take as my first wideout as i knew jerry would be off the table. i figured that i would try my best at having an overall receiving corps that could beat yours.


my first wideout taken would be cris carter.


receiving touchdowns: 131 (8th all time)
receptions: 1,101 (3rd all time)
only player to record 120+ receptions in a season twice, 1994 and 1995
most touchdown receptions on thursday games (9)
most 12+ reception games in a single season (4) in 1995
one of 3 players (clarke gaines and jerry rice) to record 12+ receptions in back to back games
most consecutive games with at least 3 receptions (58)
most 1 yard touchdown receptions in nfl history (9)
most touchdown receptions 2 yards or less in nfl history (16) - tied with jerry rice
most touchdown receptions 4 yards or less in nfl history (28)
most touchdown receptions 5 yards or less in nfl history (36) - tied with jerry rice
most touchdown receptions 6 yards or less in nfl history (44)
most touchdown receptions 7 yards or less in nfl history (48)
most consecutive games with 2 touchdown receptions (4)
most consecutive seasons with 5+ touchdowns (11) - terrell owens, jerry rice, marvin harrison, don hutson, cris carter, tim brown
most consecutive seasons with 5+ touchdown receptions (11) - terrell owens, jerry rice, marvin harrison, don hutson, cris carter, tim brown
first player to record a 150 yard receiving game in 3 different decades (jerry rice is the only other player to do so)

jesus h. after giving me shit about using numbers in the woodson/prime debate, you just went and had a stats-gasm all over my blog. shame on you. if luke had been this easy to pull over to the dark side, the rebels never would have had a chance.

that being said, his 2 all-pros to jerry's 12 is the only stat that matters on this day. carter was really good. from everything you read, he may have had the best hands of his generation, maybe any generation. if you have a chance at having a better wideout tandem than team bill, though, your second option is going to have to be pretty damn strong.

chris: whatev! it is impossible to compete with jerry rice. i'm not gonna get caught up in the numbers for that reason. i went with my gut. cc was a great receiver for teams that had (for the most part) nothing around him. he will go down as one of the best ever. i stand by the decision. are you ready for my mlb?

well, i suppose i can't ask for much more than a concession, so we'll move on. i do hope your "for the most part" caveat had in mind a teammate that i have ranked higher than carter on my board. you may be hearing from him later.