Jerry Rice on Jimmy Garoppolo’s injury: He was just trying to do everything he could to win

Jerry Rice knows what it is like to try to come back from a devastating ACL injury. The former San Francisco 49ers great and Hall of Fame wide receiver joined 95.7 The Game on Monday morning to discuss yesterday's injury to quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

"It's just unfortunate," Rice said on the "Joe, Lo, and Dibs" show. "This guy is a great player. The Niners are going to have to rally up now. It's another one of those freak injuries because it was no impact. He was just making a cut. That was the same thing with Jerick McKinnon. He was just making a cut (in practice), and it gave way."

There has been some debate whether or not Garoppolo should have simply run out of bounds rather than risk his health for an extra yard or two. Of course, it's easy to say that after the fact.

"Jimmy G had made that cut many, many times," Rice responded. "He had done that over and over during practice. He was being a football player. Even if he had went out of bounds, it might have gave way. I don't know.

"When you are in the heat of battle, you're doing everything you can possibly do to help your team to win. It looked like he was just trying to plant and the knee gave way, and he was on the ground, and they had to cart him off."

Rice goes on to explain that you have to look at what was happening in the game to understand Garoppolo's decision.

"The Niners had fought their way back," he continued. "They had battled because I think it was 35-7 and they had fought their way back. It was just one of those plays. It was the heat of the moment. He didn't get hit until after he made that cut so who knows?

"But as a competitor, you just try to do whatever you can do to inspire your team and put them in a position where they can win."

You can listen to the entire interview with Rice below.