With Rice retired, Bruce stands atop active career receiving list

ST. LOUIS -- Isaac Bruce has been a Rams player so long he was with the team in Los Angeles.

Now comes the reward for his longevity.

Jerry Rice's retirement earlier this week puts Bruce at the top of the active receiving yardage list with 11,753.

"It's big," Bruce said. "It means a little to me, but Jerry will always be No. 1 in my eyes."

Bruce is entering his 12th season with the Rams, who in their final year on the West Coast in 1994 made him a second-round pick out of Memphis. And he's showing no signs of slowing after ranking among the leaders with 89 catches, a 14.5-yard average and six touchdowns last season.

He's coming off his seventh career 1,000-yard season.

"I deal with getting better," Bruce said. "I always look to add steps, not lose steps."

Bruce is climbing the NFL career charts, too. He enters Sunday's opener at San Francisco needing 82 yards to pass Hall of Famer Don Maynard for 12th on the career list and 153 to surpass Michael Irvin for 11th. With 74 touchdowns, he's two shy of moving into 20th place. He has 777 career catches.

Throughout his career, he's done his job without fanfare or histrionics.

"Does he carry a Bic pen? No, I don't think he does," Rams coach Mike Martz said. "Does he have a cell phone? No, I don't think he does. Is he quiet, humble, respectful, is he everything you want a player to be? Absolutely.

"Find a flaw in Isaac Bruce; I challenge anybody."

Bruce's accomplishments pale in comparison with Rice, who has 38 league records including career receptions (1,549), yards receiving (22,895) and touchdowns receiving (197).

There's no shame in that. He's just like every other wide receiver, operating in Rice's rather large shadow.

"Just in one sentence, he's what every receiver in this league aims to be," Bruce said. "We'll miss him."

But Bruce concedes nothing to Rice's dominance. With time and health he thinks he can even challenge those records.

"I believe I can," he said.

Bruce said he never really got to know Rice. But he squared off against him often enough, twice per season when Rice was with the 49ers from 1994 to 2000.

And it's probably no coincidence Bruce has had some big games against San Francisco, including an eight-catch, 188-yard game in 2000; a nine-catch, 173-yarder in 1995; a 134-yard game in 1999 and a 129-yarder in 2000. He caught 11 passes against the 49ers in another 1999 game.

Bruce believes the Rams' offense this year has the capability of challenging the outfit nicknamed the Greatest Show on Turf from 1999 to 2001 when Kurt Warner was in his heyday. The Rams still have the 1-2 receiving combination of Torry Holt and Bruce. Steven Jackson is set to begin his first year as a starter with Marshall Faulk as the all-purpose backup. And there's speedy depth at wide receiver with Kevin Curtis and Shaun McDonald.

Quarterback Marc Bulger is coming off his best season and the team believes he's ready to make a jump to elite status. Bruce said he notices "an air of confidence."

"I think he realizes what he means to this team and what he means to this offense," Bruce said. "It was very evident when he went down last year against the 49ers at home and we missed him for two games.

"I believe just having him in the offense makes everything go a lot smoother."

The Rams led the NFL in scoring from 1999 to 2001, topping 500 points each year, although they had fallen to the middle of the pack in recent years.

"I believe we'll score a lot of points; we'll run the ball extremely well and it'll give guys on our side a chance to get downfield and make bigger and longer plays and put more points on the board," Bruce said. "It'll be close to it, but it's hard to match."