Rice epitomizes ‘southern hospitality’

By Fredie Carmichael / editor
This past week I had the rare opportunity to meet one of my all-time favorite athletes, one of the greatest players to ever play in the NFL — Jerry Rice.

Rice, a native of Crawford, a small town up the road near Starkville, was in town to speak at a Meridian Community College fundraiser on Saturday. On Friday, instead of just taking it easy, he decided to join MCC alums in the annual MCC Alumni and Friends golf tournament at Naval Air Station Meridian's Ponta Creek Golf Course.

At first, I wasn't sure how I'd approach Rice, but I knew I had to meet him. I grew up a San Francisco 49ers fan and considered Jerry Rice the absolute best, one of my heroes. And the fact that he was from smalltown Mississippi was even more appealing. So I wondered if I'd be a little star-struck once I had my chance to meet this NFL legend.

The first thing I noticed about him Friday: he was constantly smiling and joking with people. I could tell by his interactions with others that he was extremely down to earth. When my buddy, MCC golf coach Sean Covich, welcomed everyone to the tournament, Rice ran from the putting green and immediately began joking with the crowd. He seemed to have this way of putting people at ease, making them feel as if he was just, "one of the guys."

As I hung around the pavilion after the tournament, I patiently waited my turn to speak to him. I watched as people walked up for autographs and pictures; he never looked bothered and kept smiling and joking. He was far different than most celebrities ... he was humble. And I say celebrity because aside from his accomplishments on the football field — and those are far too numerous to list — he made a pop culture splash recently when he finished third on the second season of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" reality show.

Now he's a household name for football and dancing ... well, maybe that's a bit of a stretch. That is, however, where I broke the ice with the NFL great. I joked with him about his appearance on the dancing show. He laughed and grabbed my arm like we were two old pals recalling childhood stories. He was incredibly down to earth.

"It's just good to be home man," Rice said as we chatted. "I can't tell you how great it feels to be back in Mississippi, just driving in seeing the trees and everything. I love it; I love the people."

Now compare that with say someone like Oprah. I hesitate to bash Oprah because I want to be fair and I wasn't able to meet her during her appearance to Meridian this year (few were). But I will say this: I doubt many celebrities would spend two days running from event to event without an entourage and continue to smile, sign autographs and interact with people the way Rice did.

While here, he didn't just take it easy; relaxing doesn't seem to be in Rice's vocabulary. That's not surprising considering this is a man who will go down in history as one of the hardest working professional athletes to ever play. Rice spent a lot of time with local kids.

Sean Covich couldn't get over how incredible he was after watching him for two days.

“After being around Jerry these past few days he will go down as my favorite athlete of all-time because of his love and passion in wanting to help out kids,” Covich said.

I'm just proud to say one of the greatest NFL players ever is from "just up the road" in Crawford. And, more importantly, he epitomizes true southern hospitality.


Fredie Carmichael is executive editor of The Meridian Star. E-mail him at editor@themeridianstar.com.