It seems former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver, Hall of Fame legend Jerry Rice has plenty of talent on his hands. The Hall of Fame legend has been talking about his daughter Jaqui, who he has called, perhaps misguidedly given the lady’s fiscal transgressions, the next Lauren Hill.
‘Qui’ is a neo-soul singer and has worked with hip-hop heavyweights, including rap star David Banner. She has just released a new music video for her song, “Everything Is Roses.”
But Jerry Rice pouring attention on the talent he has on his hands now may be a distraction tactic from the attention being paid in sports circles to what he poured on his hands in his playing career.
The multiple record holder and, by consensus, the best wide receiver to have played in the NFL admitted earlier this month to have used a banned adhesive substance rejoicing in the name ‘Stickum’ on his hands in his playing days. Worse still, he has thrown every other wide receiver and their achievements under the bus by declaring that “everybody did it”; a claim unsurprisingly being denied by peers from his era and beyond.
Stickum was banned by the NFL in 1981, but was used fairly extensively for a couple of seasons before the ban, notably by one of my own idols, LA Raiders defensive back, Lester Hayes.
When I played the game – which was post 1981 but clearly not in the NFL – we players in ball-catching positions came up with the idea of using 3M spray-on Photo Mount, which was probably a far less effective alternative to what the pros had once used. But we were also far less effective in our little south London enclave, so it didn’t matter.
We soon gave up the idea when our fingers started sticking not only to the ball, but to everything else we touched, including our other fingers! Only when you have glue on your hands to you fully appreciate how often you casually touch your clothes, helmet, face, etc.
Lest anyone suggest we were outrageous cheats and going against fundamental principles of fair play, even some NFL players routinely wear ‘tackified’ gloves, which, when warmed by body temperature, become probably about as sticky as a Post-It.
