Jerry Rice blasts officials’ calls during 49ers’ Super Bowl loss

Hall of Famer Jerry Rice is still devastated by San Francisco's loss to Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV.

While Jerry Rice doesn’t want to outright blame officials’ calls for the 49ers’ Super Bowl loss, the Hall of Famer implies some egregious officiating mistakes were hard for San Francisco to overcome.

Rice rattled off three plays in particular he feels officials blew in San Francisco’s 31-20 loss he calls “devastating” and helped send him into an emotional tailspin.

“We had some bad calls, too, against us,” Rice said Wednesday morning on 95.7 The Game’s “Joe, Lo and Dibs” show. “The one with (George) Kittle right before halftime. I’m like, ‘Are you serious? Come on!’ ”

Rice was referring to the offensive pass interference call against Kittle when he was ruled to have used his right arm to push off and ward off Chiefs safety Daniel Sorensen. The call with 14 seconds left in first half negated a 42-yard pass play and a likely 49ers field goal to snap a 10-10 tie.

For his part, Kittle said of the call, “I gotta live with it.” Rice isn’t buying it.

“I understand if you really extend your arm, but let the players play,” Rice told The Game.

Rice then turned his attention to a pair of other calls he still can’t believe were made — a pass interference ruling in the end zone on 49ers safety Tarvarius Moore, who was guarding Travis Kelce, and Damien Williams’ go-ahead touchdown run with 2:44 left.

“The one with, I think, (Travis) Kelce; that interference,” Rice said. “Then the one that, I guess, was a touchdown with the guy (Damien Williams). I felt he stepped out of bounds before he stuck the ball over the pylon.”

The Chiefs are back on top after back-to-back scores at the #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/yRXiQsxr5M

— Sporting News (@sportingnews) February 3, 2020

Then Rice, arguably the greatest player in NFL history, took a breath and a step back from dishing out barbs.

“You can’t make excuses or anything like that,” he said. “We had a chance. We lost the game probably in the last five minutes. We were right in the ballgame.

“It was devastating for me. It’s something that I can’t get over right now. It’s going to take a while, and I’m hoping it’s the same way for the players.”

And this coming from a 57-year-old man who hasn’t played an NFL game in 15 years.