AP

Earlier this year, Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice admitted to putting stickum on his gloves, a significant confession in the early days of #DeflateGate, when Patriots fans were searching for any and all evidence of other teams cheating. Rice later apologized for using stickum, but claimed that “[a]ll players did it!”

Receivers like Michael Irvin and Cris Carter strongly disagreed, and the story surprisingly never gathered much steam. In May, however, Rice abruptly revisited the topic — and he seemed to change his tune dramatically.

“Never been investigated for stickum!” Rice said via Twitter. “Mistakenly used that word and dealing with consequences! But I don’t have a problem taking a Polygraph!”

Rice, in a promotional appearance on behalf of Lysol, appeared on Wednesday’s PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio, and I can him an opportunity to clear the air. Did Jerry Rice use stickum?

“You know the thing is, the way I worked and my work ethic and stuff like that it really speaks for itself,” Rice said. “I’m not even going to address that anymore. When people think about me they think about the time I put in on the field. And even with the situation with the New England Patriots. The Patriots, they really deserve what they got by winning the Super Bowl, you know, that’s fantastic. I look at the Patriots and I think about the San Fransisco 49ers and what they were able to accomplish. And I look at Tom Brady — you know what? — he was able to accomplish winning four Super Bowls. So you know those are the things I’m focusing on right now and you know my work ethic was everything during my entire career and I think it speaks for itself.”

It does, but he didn’t answer the question. Which probably answers the question.

Then again, it would be easy to pass a polygraph if the answer to the question is, “I’m not going to answer the question.” That, indeed, would be a truthful response.

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