Jerry Rice encourages San Francisco 49ers to double Travis Kelce '100%'

The San Francisco 49ers are hoping to beat the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday after losing the Lombardi Trophy to them just four years ago. If the 49ers win, it will be the franchise’s sixth world championship title. Jerry Rice, a man with a hand in three of the team’s Super Bowl wins, was at the Senior Bowl this week where he broke down what he believes his former team needs to do to beat the Chiefs this time around.

“We got to get to Patrick Mahomes, and man, that’s a hard task,” Rice said in an interview with Tom Pelissero. “And Travis Kelce, I would double him 100%. Also, Taylor Swift, I would double her 100%, too. We don’t want Travis to get going. Every time Travis gets going, the camera goes up to the box with Taylor Swift. We got to change that. If we can do that, I feel like we have a legitimate chance.

“It’s going to be up to our defensive line and also the secondary to put pressure on Patrick Mahomes. Get some turnovers. And then we have to be able to get off to a fast start. That last ball game, 24-7 at halftime. We don’t want to be in that position with the Kansas City Chiefs. Especially with a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes.”

Shutting down Mahomes, and his connection to Kelce in particular is something few teams have found ways to do this season. The Chiefs tight end has had more than 70 yards in each of the team’s three playoff games.

Rice on his NFL records: ‘You can’t break them all’

During the AFC Championship game, Kelce broke Rice’s record for the most career receptions in the NFL Playoffs. Rice previously held the record with 151 receptions.

During an interview with a Bay Area sports radio station, Rice responded to Kelce being on the brink of breaking his record. He denied harboring resentment about today’s athletes breaking records thanks, in some part, to the league expanding the season to 17 regular season games.

“I go on social media and saw, ‘Jerry Rice is going to go complain about 17 football games or whatever and having so many opportunities in the playoffs on just little short routes and all that stuff,'” Rice said. “It doesn’t matter to me, baby. It’s OK.

“I’ve got plenty of records. You can’t break them all. You can’t break them all, baby. I’ll throw you a bone, I’ll throw you one or two. I’ll throw you a couple.”

Kelce now trails Rice by just one place in receiving yards (1,964) and playoff receiving touchdowns (19). The former 49ers legend finished his career with 2,245 receiving yards and 21 touchdowns in the playoffs.