It's not every day that you're filling your car up with gas, only to look up and see that one of the greatest athletes of all time is sitting in his/her car at the adjacent pump. And if that situation ever did occur, you'd probably be tempted to respectfully do everything in your power to perhaps give a wave, say hi, and maybe even engage in a conversation with said athlete, if you're lucky.
A young Donte' Stallworth found himself in this situation when pulling up to a gas station with a high school teammate, though the "respectful" part of his desire to meet the athlete — in this case, Jerry Rice with his then-wife, Jackie — was left out of the story. Still, you can't blame a young, aspiring football player for being as excited as he was.
The former wide receiver shared the story of his chance encounter with the 49ers legend in the latest episode of "Cut To It," hosted by former NFL wideout Steve Smith Sr. and Gerard Littlejohn.
"...We're driving by Rocklin. This was during the summer and this was right around the time when training camp was starting," Stallworth recalled. "I knew everything about Jerry Rice. He was one of my favorite players, probably one of my favorite athletes, so I knew that his wife's name was Jackie. I knew that, I just knew his family dynamic. Anything about Jerry Rice, I had read about, because I loved him so much as a kid.
"So as we were stopping to get gas, in front of us there was a little convertible. It was like a blueish Mercedes with the license plate that said something like '4UJACKIE' or 'JACKIE' and I remember looking, like, 'Oh, that's Jerry Rice's wife's name.' And then I looked at the person in the car which I was behind, and I'm like, 'Yo, that's Jerry!' "
Much to the surprise of his teammate, who happened to be his high school quarterback, Stallworth could tell it was Rice from the back of his head among other context clues. That was all he needed to tell his quarterback to follow the car instead of worrying about getting gas.
"...So we didn't even get gas. We followed Jerry, and we're in this beat-up pickup truck, right... I'm not thinking this at the time, I'm 15 years old and this is my idol. I'm going to say hi to him."
Two random guys following you in a beat-up truck after a quick visit to the gas station? Doesn't seem suspicious at all! They ultimately wound up following him all the way to the parking lot for the 49ers, at which point Rice got out of his car near the entrance.
"We're following him. We're actually like following him following him now. Let's just pull over here and wait 'til he gets out of his car," Stallworth said. "So he parks up close, and as we see him park up close, we get out of the car to start walking towards him. Now we're probably about 50 yards away from the entrance where he's walking into.
"Jerry's out of his car and he's looking in our direction, and he's pointing at us to security, and security is looking at us as we're walking up. So then the security starts walking towards us and Jerry walks in the building, and he's like, 'Hey, you guys can't be in here.'
And that was that. Though they pleaded their case, Stallworth and his teammate left without the experience of meeting their idol, but he completely understands it in hindsight.
"And so we left, and I wasn't like, 'Oh, I just stalked Jerry Rice,' I was like, 'Oh my god, I just said what's up to Jerry Rice.' That was my story, I had met my idol. And of course I exaggerated the whole encounter," Stallworth said. "I didn't tell anyone that we stalked him partially, but yeah, he was probably like, 'Yo, these dudes right here have followed me from this light, and y'all need to make sure that they're not going to run up in here and try to do whatever.'
"...He did what any self-aware human being would've done when you have two people following you in a beat-up pickup truck."
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