Jerry Rice Says He'd Join Team in Training Camp, Not Hold Out Like Revis

Jerry Rice, who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend, said he would be at practice rather than holding out like the New York Jets’ Darrelle Revis.

“To be there with my teammates, sweating it out during those two-a-days, shows your loyalty to the team and also to winning,” Rice said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Rice’s 1,549 receptions and 197 touchdown catches during his 20-year career are the most in National Football League history. He held out once, in 1992, missing all of the San Francisco 49ers’ preseason games.

Revis, 25, is holding out for a contract larger than the three-year, $43.3 million deal that Oakland Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha signed last season that made him the highest paid defensive back. Revis is in the fourth season of a six-year contract worth $36 million, according to the NFL Network. He’s scheduled to make $1 million in 2010.

Revis has six interceptions last season for a team that advanced to the American Football Conference championship game. He also finished second to Green Bay Packers cornerback Charles Woodson in voting for the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

“Revis is a great shutdown corner, a guy you can line up on the opposing team’s best receiver,” Rice said. “The Jets came very close last year, and they need to get him in camp.”

The Jets are currently in their third day of training camp and owner Woody Johnson said last night that the two groups remain “far apart” in their negotiations.

Revis’s agent, Neil Schwartz, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michele Steele in New York msteele10@bloomberg.net.