It's hard to pick one defining moment to be a Jerry Rice fan. But I can't think of a play that excited me more than when Flash 80 took an eight yard slant pattern to the house in Texas Stadium for an 81 yard TD on the second play of the game in a 1995 showdown against the Cowboys.

Going into the game, the 49ers were heavy underdogs. Although they were the defending champs, no one thought of them as having a realistic shot at beating the 8-1 Cowboys.

The Cowboys did their best to talk about how bad the 49ers were playing. Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders went out of their way to talk about how they wanted to "do things" in the endzone. Sanders showed his true colors earlier in the week by bashing the Niners and saying he never enjoyed playing for them the year before. He even downplayed the efforts of the 49er defense by disregarding the fact that they were the first ranked defense in the league.

Irvin rode an eight game streak of 100 or more receiving yards. One more game of 100+ yards and he would make history. He noted before the game that it would be good to have Rice in attendance when he broke that record. Irvin finished with 4 catches for 37 yards.

So when Jerry Rice ran up the middle of the field with Michael Irvin watching from the sidelines and Deion Sanders nowhere within his vicinity, I couldn't help but yell out loud in jubilation. The two biggest mouths in football were getting shut up by the greatest wide receiver to ever play the game. Rice didn't talk a big game. He just went out and played one.

What I loved most about this play was that it was vintage Jerry Rice. It came on a slant pattern, a route Jerry Rice has come to embody. A route Rice has made defenders look foolish on for so many years. A route that so many other receivers in the game these days try to run precisely because the 49ers had the offense everyone envied and because Jerry Rice was the prototypical receiver of that offense.

Another great thing about that play was Jerry's run after the catch. Jerry Rice has a patent on the run after the catch statistic. He took a short pattern and turned it into a long gain. And he did it right up the gut of the Dallas defense.

It was also pretty surreal to see the 49ers in their home uniforms as the visiting team. I know this is a staple of the Cowboys--to wear white at home--but you almost got the sense that Texas Stadium was Candlestick, because it had a familiar sight: Jerry Rice burning defenders to the endzone.

And who could forget that run. Oh my God what a stride. Smooth, sleek, and effortless: when Jerry Rice burns a defender, he does it in style. It looked at first like Brock Marion and Larry Brown would immediately catch up to Rice just as he was trampling the Dallas Star at the center of the carpet. But they suddenly pooped out and then it was Kevin Smith that appeared to be gaining on Rice. I honestly think Jerry Rice let up a bit when he got to the 10 yard line or so, and that was what allowed Smith to trip him up. Rice stumbled and fell into the endzone. It was so symbolic of Jerry's runs...defenders would be this close to catching up to him...but once they did, it was too little...too late.

When you factor all of the above together, I can't think of a play that better defined Jerry Rice. Running up the middle of the field, racking up yards after the catch, sticking it to an arch rival at their stadium as a heavy underdog, and silencing the opposing fans and the opposing players...that was what Jerry Rice relishes. That was my proudest moment to be a Jerry Rice fan.