Falcons Honor PRN’s Rice During Final Atlanta Weekend

Doug Rice (right) with Atlanta Falcons Executive Vice President Brett Jewkes. (Jacob Seelman photo)

HAMPTON, Ga. – As the “Doug’s Last Lap” tour begins to wind toward its conclusion, outgoing Performance Racing Network play-by-play voice Doug Rice was honored by his favorite NFL team on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

A self-admitted “lifetime fan” of the Atlanta Falcons, Rice was presented with a custom jersey featuring his last name and the No. 36 – representing the number of years he’s been in the broadcast booth – by Falcons’ executive vice president and Chief Brand and Communications Officer Brett Jewkes.

Rice also received a commemorative photo of the Falcons’ “Dirty Birds” paint scheme that was used on a special show car last year at AMS.

“I’m honored; I had no idea this was coming,” Rice said during a short media availability. “This is really special, but I’ll say my ‘man cave’ is really starting to get full up now!

“Get a jersey without having to be a number one draft pick. I’ll take that any day.”

Though he lives in Carolina Panthers country, having grown up in Asheville, N.C., Rice told the story of how he became – and remains – a Falcons fan despite their rough sledding recently in the NFL.

“Maybe two weeks before Brett announced that he was leaving NASCAR to take the job with Falcons, he came up to me and he goes, ‘Alright, tell me why you’re such a big Atlanta Falcons fan,’ and this was in the media center at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And I went through the whole story … because my high school [mascot] was the Falcons, and I gravitated to [rooting for] Atlanta because we kind of stole their logo and put it on our helmets. It was just a natural fit.

“There was no Carolina Panthers at that time … and I didn’t want to pull for the Redskins [now the Washington Commanders!” he added with a laugh.

Notably, Jewkes was NASCAR’s former Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer before departing the sanctioning body at the end of the 2015 season to join the Falcons, and had a long working relationship with Rice over his motorsports tenure.

That made Saturday’s presentation all the more special.

“All of us at the Falcons couldn’t be more excited to have you as a full-time fan [going forward], and we wanted to make it official here and recognize your 36 years behind the microphone.

“Now, we just want to put some more wins on the board and really drive the fandom back forward!”

Rice’s final NASCAR weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway as a broadcaster culminates Sunday with the NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 available at Walmart at the 1.54-mile, quad-oval superspeedway.

Broadcast coverage airs on the Performance Racing Network – as well as USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90 – starting at 3 p.m. ET.