Jerry Rice: I was entering my prime at Calvin Johnson's age

Jerry Rice, the greatest receiver in football history, thinks it would be unfortunate to see Calvin Johnson retire from the sport so young.

"It's just unfortunate to see him (walk away) because he's around, like, 32," Rice said Wednesday, according to MLive.com's Kyle Meinke. "I was just coming into my prime at his age."

Johnson is actually 30 years old. He's played nine seasons since the Detroit Lions took him with the second overall draft pick in 2007, making 731 catches for 11,619 yards and 83 touchdowns along the way.

Those figures put him ahead of Rice's pace in catches and yardage at age 30, but Rice went on to play 12 more seasons, adding 939 catches for 12,622 yards and 94 touchdowns.

In other words, he put up better stats than Johnson has in his entire career after age 30.

"I think the thing with him is that if he can't be 100 percent, he doesn't want to just be on the field," Rice said of Johnson. "There's a lot of money he's walking away from. He's walking away from, like, $27 million. But he doesn't want to be that type of player."