Jerry Rice didn't wait long to respond to a snub from fellow legendary NFL wide receiver Randy Moss.
Rice on Friday night took to social media to offer his thoughts after Moss, the former Vikings and Patriots superstar, dubbed himself the greatest to ever play the position this week -- and casually dismissed Rice as "third or fourth."
Rice, the 49ers icon, fired back with an Instagram post featuring a graphic with a side-by-side comparison of the vaunted wideouts' stats.
Rice had the advantage in all of career touchdowns, catches, yards -- he's the league's career leader in all three -- as well as Super Bowl titles.
The 58-year-old Hall of Famer captioned his post, "You just got MOSSED!"
By Saturday morning, however, it seemed Rice had thought better of it, as the post appeared to be deleted, Yahoo Sports reported.
Moss reignited one of the sport's timeless debates when, during an appearance on former star wide receiver Terrell Owens' podcast, he proclaimed himself the GOAT -- with TO, another San Francisco legend, as his personal No. 2.
"I’ll put myself first, I’ll put T.O. second," Moss said. “I would put Jerry probably third or fourth. I’m talking about dominating the game and changing the game of football. I don’t live on statistics because if you live on statistics and live on championships, that’s all political.
"You’ve seen guys released or cut from a team just by a couple words in the media," Moss continued. "You’ve seen guys given contracts or you’ve seen guys not given contracts just because of the color of their skin. You’ve got to throw politics out of the game of football, and look at the impact of what each individual was able to make in the game of football."
The snub turned heads -- apparently including Rice's -- and had football fans taking sides.
Two of Rice's big three league receiving records -- touchdowns, catches and yards -- are safe for the foreseeable future, with only career catches potentially threatened by Arizona Cardinals star Larry Fitzgerald, who trailed Rice by about 125 receptions toward the end of the 2020 season.
Fitzgerald would have two play at least two more seasons, possibly more, to catch Rice.
Of course, Rice holds many of the league's cumulative stats because of his astounding longevity -- which is no small thing in a sport where availability is the greatest -ability, as the cliche goes.
Moss seems to be aware of this, vaguely making the "compiler" argument against Rice.
One argument in Moss' favor is that he may have been a hair more efficient than Rice with his relatively fewer opportunities, coming out on top in both yards per catch and catch rate.
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