Rice Nabbed by Police in "Massage Parlor" Sting

Media begrudgingly reports Rice found locked in bathroom of suspected brothel

Just when the NHS was settling into a well-earned, relaxing offseason, Jerry Rice has to go and publicly humiliate himself. Maybe we should have expected it -- since Jerry Rice can't go deep on defensive backs anymore, he's turned to having a "masseuse" go deep on him.

By now you might have heard the media-canned story: Innocent Jerry Rice wandered into a seedy Mountain View massage parlor on the advice of teammates that he could get a good "deep-tissue massage". He looked around and saw that the place was not legitimate, so decided to leave. But first, he took a trip to the bathroom, and as luck would have it, the police came at just the precise moment that Jerry was in the bathroom. Poor Jerry, what bad luck!

But like all things 49er, there's something fishy going on behind the media spin...

MV Spa: notorious for prostitution

At first glance, the MV Spa in Mountain View doesn't invoke images of sex and debauchery, but it certainly doesn't look like a "spa", either. The sign out front simply reads, "Tanning", making it more the curious of what actually goes on inside. For years, local law enforcement and neighboring business owners have had their view of what's going on, and while it may be sweating under hot lights, it's not tanning.

Little Shop of Whores?
The alleged house of ill-repute
visited by Rice

In 1993, the city revoked the MV's massage permit, citing repeated acts of solicitation for prostitution. The permit was suspended in 1995 and revoked again in 1996, prohibiting the business to operate as a massage parlor. Instead, MV has been operating under the guise of a "spa", offering sauna, "hot tub" (in fact, a bathtub), tanning, and "hot-towel" wraps.

The Mountain View police department recently concluded a year long investigation of the spa to discover if the place had indeed gone legitimate. Posing as customers, police were given massages, offers for sex, and some up close and personal use of baby oil, including genital massage. In addition to the officer's first "hand" experiences, the district attorney's office stumbled on some Internet listings advertising the spa as a brothel. NHS did a quick Dejanews(TM) search to validate this claim, and indeed we did discover many references to MV Spa in the newsgroup "alt.sex.prostitution" -- including one from a very satisfied "John".

Little surprise that the District Attorney's office, after about a year of investigation, moved in on February 25th with a restraining order to close down the joint. They even had along a reporter from the San Jose Mercury to witness the proceedings, otherwise we may never have known just who crawled out from under the rock of sleaze. As police served the restraining order and ushered folks out, guess who they found locked behind a bathroom door?

No Rear Entry for Rice?
Police tape blocks the back entrance of the MV Spa
Enter Rice

According to Rice at the scene, the reason he was inside the seedy establishment was because several teammates told him it was a good place to get a deep-tissue massage. This defense is suspect at best and leads to some other interesting questions.

The MV Spa did not have a license to practice massage. Therefore, they offered only "hot towel wraps", a sauna, and "hot tub". The hot tub was, in fact, simply a bath tub, according to police. The main sign in front of the spot reads, "MV Spa Tanning", and no mention of massage. So the first perplexing question raised is, if Rice's teammates did indeed set him up as a prank, how did they hear of the illicit massage parlor in the first place?

Basically, Rice's "prank" excuse is an implication that other 49ers have a working knowledge of the MV Spa and the type of "deep tissue massaging" going on there. No surprise that no 49er teammates have stepped up to admit they were the ones that pulled the prank on Jerry.

More importantly, Rice himself has, according to the San Jose Mercury, "backed off" the prank excuse that he gave at the scene. In a written statement released through his agent, Rice did not repeat that his teammates allegedly tricked him into going there.

In short, all signs say Rice simply fabricated to the "prank" excuse. Common sense fills in the rest of answering the question, why was he there? For years, we've been force-fed how the 49ers are the first-class organization of the sports world, sparing no expense, and supposedly treating their players better than anyone. One would think that within that "best ever" treatment would be first-rate massage therapy available to 49ers, so why would a player need to go looking elsewhere?

Even if the team doesn't have their own masseuses, you would think with Jerry Rice's millions of dollars that he would have his own private masseuse who is the best money can buy, which makes sense, considering his body is his livelihood (and we all know how much he works out and takes care of his body, right?). Does it make sense that he would trust his precious body into the hands of a cheap complete stranger in a little shack in Mountain View?

No, all logic dictates that Rice was not at the MV Spa simply to get an innocent massage. This isn't as surprising as it seems, because this isn't the first time 49ers and bogus massage therapy have come together.

49ers and illicit masseuses: not strange bedfellows

In 1989, back in the days of Ronnie Lott paternity suit stories, a woman named Carien O'Brien placed an ad in a newspaper for "the greatest massage ever." This raised some eyebrows over in the San Jose vice squad.

Police contacted some of O'Brien's customers and determined just exactly what kind of massage was so great -- the kind that falls into the realms of prostitution. They arrested O'Brien. Detective Steve Wininger of San Jose Vice said that according to O'Brien, her training consisted of "being taught one afternoon three years ago by a 49er whose name she can't remember."

Wonder if anyone's starting to remember the name?

Media reaction: gee, what a surprise

The media's reaction to the Jerry Rice scandal was a classic two-prong approach straight out of the 49er P.R. department manual: (1) cover it up; and (2) kill the messenger -- while all along, the criminal goes free.

While speculation swirled if the "deep tissue massage" included Rice's buttocks or other more private body parts, it was the media who was busy turning the other "cheek". The newspapers actually reporting the incident were few and far between. Sports talk show hosts were busy rehashing the Latrell Sprewell incident. In typical fashion, ESPN's Sportszone, a.k.a, "the official 49er website", had no mention of it.

Thanks to this cover-up, all the work was done for the 49er P.R. department. Didn't anyone wonder why there was no press conference to announce Jerry's innocence and detail the "prank"? The 49ers are famous for their great press conferences, where the spread is always lavish for their lovable media friends and where the manure is spread almost as thick by the 49ers who happen to be speaking. Rice is even more famous for being available for a candid interview with an ass-kissing host at the drop of the hat. But because the media did not tackle the issue with headlines, there was no need. All the 49ers had to do is sit back and watch the scandal vanish in a puff of smoke.

When the media did decide to talk about it, the troops rallied quickly to Rice's defense and attacked those delivering the message of Rice's embarrassing snafu. Never before in the history of the Bay Area did so many talk radio hosts suddenly call on their long-lost (if ever possessed) "journalistic integrity". Larry Krueger, a sports talk radio host from KNBR (the station rated 4+ smooches in the NHS smooch scale) even went so far as to cast dispersions on the few media outlets that carried the story, calling it an example of the "Jerry Springer" mentality of the media, and pontificating that the media should rise above reporting stories of the questionable morals of sports figures.

In a word, this is appalling. How dare this moron have the gall to complain about the smidgen of media coverage! How many times has this idiot personally made Michael Irvin jokes? How many times an hour does his station alone make Barry Switzer gun jokes? KNBR itself is the very definition of tabloid journalism, and now they mount the moral high horse?

The double-standard

As you've come to know over the years, we here at NHS are the first in line when it comes to supporting journalistic integrity. But a word to our little friend at KNBR and to all the sports editors that decided they would be "above" publishing the Rice-Massage story: integrity isn't something you switch on and off when it suits you. Covering up the Rice story has nothing to do with "integrity", but in fact represents the opposite -- deceit, fraud, and yellow journalism -- because it represents a deliberate proliferation of the appalling 49er double-standard. Let's see if we've all got the media's thinking straight:

Irvin gets in trouble, so let's go wild with headlines. Erik Williams gets absolutely falsely accused of rape to the point where the accuser is convicted of filing a false claim, but let's drag his name through the mud and make jokes about him, too. Switzer mistakenly packs a gun in his suitcase and it's front page again. But William Floyd's gun? Buried on page 6. Stubblefield's drunk driving? Page 5. Rice is caught in a house of ill-repute? It's time to make a stand against tabloid journalism!

Sounds all perfectly reasonable, doesn't it? Look, whether you are for against tabloid journalism isn't the point. The point is that it is a reality with every other sports figure in America, so it should be equally applied to Rice.

Image survives

As usual, the 49er/Rice P.R. strategy worked, which is no surprise -- how can the 49ers ever lose face when everybody in the media's on their side? The average person on the street remains clueless about Rice's true self while his image of purity remains. You can bet most people believe that Rice is a wholesome family man. Meanwhile, ask the average slob about Michael Irvin and you know what they think of him. Maybe things would have been different if the police decided to arrest Rice and the other patrons who were present at the time of the raid. Well, probably not. Heck, William Floyd was arrested, but people seem to think Barry Switzer is the only person ever busted for illegally toting a firearm.

But before we think all is lost, we can rely on one good outcome. You can bet that the press, while they won't ever come out and ridicule Rice, they will be a bit more hesitant to hop on the "Rice for Sainthood" campaign, lest they get burned again down the road when Rice needs to sow some more oats. Perhaps we've heard the end of the ridiculous Rice and pregnant wife story that supposedly shows his classy family values.

Last December, satirist Norman Chad wrote, "Here's an idea to entice Cowboys to score more touchdowns: put a massage parlor in the end zone!!" Now, the shoe's on the other foot. Turnabout should be fair play. It remains to be seen if the media will have the integrity to give Rice equal treatment. Don't hold your breath.

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