WR Sidney Rice was sitting at home this offseason, resting up from a knee injury that plagued him for much of 2008 and ready to relish some time off. But that's when friend Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald called him and invited him to work out back in Minnesota along with Cris Carter, plus a select group of receivers for an intense offseason workout. At first Rice, balked.

"I wasn't too sure at first," Rice told PFW. "I was working out a little bit, but I knew it was going to be really intense."

But Fitzgerald talked Rice into coming, and he was on a plane the next day. When Rice arrived, he got a rude awakening from Carter. The former Vikings receiver ripped Rice for skipping a day of work after he got up there, bringing up the familiar refrain that he was tired of hearing the Vikings didn't have any quality receivers.

For Rice it hit hard. He, too, had heard the talk, especially after taking a step back his second season and watching the Vikings pursue T.J. Houshmandzadeh in free agency. Rice knew he had to step up his work, not just to appease the tough-love Carter but also to reach his full potential.

"(Carter) said he needed someone stepping up to the plate. I remember those exact words," Rice said. "He was really getting on me. (After missing the session) he let me have it in front of everybody. He said, 'I am not going to be wasting my time on someone who is not willing to better himself.' It just made me want to step up to the challenge even more."

And now in his third season, Rice has become a dominant player. With help from the additions of QB Brett Favre and WR Percy Harvin, Rice has shown the complete ability he flashed in college and his rookie season in 2007 before being limited to 13 games last season because of the troublesome knee.

"It was really tough on me," he said of last season. "I thought it was really worse than it was. I kept feeling the same pain and wasn't able to perform. I knew I wasn't myself. It was real tough throughout that whole season, being out there and playing with the pain."

Just 23, Rice also realized he needed to make changes to his daily routine — mostly eating and drinking better and stretching more diligently — to take the next step. And he credits Favre, WR coach George Stewart and, of course, Carter for helping him to gain confidence and recommit himself coming into this season, in which he leads the NFC in receiving yards, to become a great player.

"I feel completely different now," Rice said.

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