Antonio Brown wants to play for 49ers “really bad,” per Jerry Rice

The Antonio Brown saga continues as the NFL Playoffs move forward with the Pittsburgh Steelers on the sidelines watching it all unfold. With multiple teams rumored as possible landing spots for Brown ahead of next season, one NFL legend believes there is one team, in particular, Brown wants to be part of most. That team is Rice’s former team, the San Francisco 49ers.

Brown and Rice had a recent FaceTime conversation about the situation, according to ESPN’s report. An image of that FaceTime session surfaced on Brown’s Instagram as well. During his appearance on 95.7 The Game on Monday (Jan. 14), Rice elaborated upon what was discussed with the show. When asked if Brown wants to play for the 49ers, Rice replied with “He wants to come here really bad.”

Rice said that Brown has been “picking his brain” about things including his workout regimen. However, the Super Bowl champion also said, “I don’t know if it’s going to happen because it’s going to be up to [coach] Kyle Shanahan and also [general manager] John Lynch.” Rice mentioned he is “all for it” if Brown ends up coming to San Francisco, though.

It would certainly be a major boost for a struggling 49ers team that seemed to be on the rise ahead of the recent NFL season. An injury to starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo ended up hurting the team’s success. However, once Garoppolo is back on the field, having a weapon to target like Antonio Brown could bring success back to San Francisco.

Rice knows success there very well. He spent the first 16 years of his NFL Hall of Fame career as a member of the 49ers. During that time, he won three Super Bowl rings with two different quarterbacks in 1988, 1989, and 1994.

Rice also tallied 19,247 yards receiving and 176 touchdowns in that time. Add in his two seasons with the Oakland Raiders and Rice is No. 1 all-time in terms of NFL receiving yards with 22,985. He also ranks first in terms of touchdown receptions with 197 total. The closest active NFL stars are Larry Fitzgerald and Antonio Gates who each have 116 TDs as of this report.

It would be hard to argue that Antonio Brown is on pace to have a career similar to Jerry Rice did. He’s been in the league since 2010 and mostly healthy during that time. However, he missed all 15 games for the Steelers this past season due to his holdout situation. Brown currently has 11,207 yards receiving and 74 touchdown receptions, so he has a bit of work and time to put in to get into the all-time great conversation with Rice.

The San Francisco 49ers are just one of a number of teams mentioned with regards to Rice. Other teams listed as “favorites” to land Brown by a recent sports odds website included the Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions, New York Jets, and Oakland Raiders.