Will Reverse In Numbers Mirror Attitude For Moss?

Posted by Jeff Sack on August 17th, 2007 filed in Features

 

There is an old saying; If you are rich you are called eccentric, if you are poor they call you crazy. A similar mindset exists in the NFL, if you are talented but have “issues” in most cases you can get away with it, if you are a border-line player or worse you are cut. Simple as that, you have to out weigh your baggage with your contributions, and in most cases that seems to be the deciding factor. However two rather big exceptions to that rule of thumb stand out over the last few years two wide receivers who in spite of what they could accomplish on the field, were looked at as too big a liability to keep around. The first player that readily comes to mind is Terrell Owens, who less than a year after helping the Philadephia Eagles reach the Super Bowl for the only time in the Andy Reid/Donovan McNabb era was suspended by Reid and the next season saw him playing for the Dallas Cowboys. Because in spite of all he can do on the field, Reid and the rest of the Eagles Brain-Trust thought that the derogatory comments he made about McNabb, and other actions outweighed his contributions. Now whether Owens being in Dallas led to Bill Parcells retirement at the end of last season remains open to conjecture. Only a few people know for sure and they aren’t talking. However if Cowboys owner Jerry Jones thinks for one second that new head coach Wade Phillips belongs in the same area code as Parcells, or for that matter his father Bum Phillips Jones is delusional.

The other wide receiver was traded from the team that drafted him, a stretch in which he played in five Pro-Bowls in six NFL seasons. During that time frame he accumulated 8,375 in receiving yards and 77 touchdowns, however controversy was always right around the corner. The player was constantly getting into it with other players, coaches, and goading sideline officials. His most celebrated act may have been him pantomiming “mooning” the opposing teams fans.

Of course you have figured out by now that I am talking about Randy Moss who was traded by the Minnesota Vikings to the Oakland Raiders after seven seasons. Although Moss was a star on the field, and had incredible athletic ability, his baggage out weighed his talent and he was sent packing to a losing Oakland team. While playing for this once proud franchise that has been stuck in quicksand ever since losing to Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl a few years back, Moss was a shadow of his former self. Seemingly unmotivated Moss had by far his least productive season in the NFL on a team that was 2-14. Moss had career lows in receiving yards with 553, receptions with 42, and only scored three touchdowns. After the campaign Oakland wanted to get rid of him so desperately that they traded him to New England for a fourth round draft pick.

Moss now finds himself going from the proverbial outhouse to the penthouse as he leaves the Raiders for the Patriots. The team has been picked by many NFL observers as a favorite to make it to and win the Super Bowl, and with Moss and other acquisitions in the off season now may have the league’s best receiving unit. Tom Brady will have a wide array of targets to choose from, and the visions of a motivated healthy Randy Moss paired up with Brady must have the rest of the NFL losing a lot of sleep. The big question is can the Patriots keep Moss on the straight and narrow?

A quote from Moss in last week’s edition of USA Today Sports Weekly, got me a little concerned. {A quick aside, USA Today Sports Weekly does a wonderful job covering the NFL and MLB, but when are you folks going to start including NBA coverage? If you do that you will fill the niche once occupied by the Sporting News. If you need writers, you can contact me at our sister site www.thesackattack.com.} Moss according to the article said the following “Now that I’m sort of enthused and energetic to be in the position I’m in, I want to bring (back) the old Randy Moss. That’s getting deep and making plays, one handed catches, all of the above.”

First and foremost you never like to hear that a Pro Athlete is unmotivated what ever the circumstances. When every day people have to break their backs to eke out an existence, you never want to hear an athlete say that are not motivated to earn millions of dollars doing what every sports fan would love to be doing.  That just rubs you the wrong way. But the other thing I noticed in the quote was he said “sort of enthused.” Randy if you are not totally pumped to be where you are right now it is time for you to hang up your cleats.

Now the positives, first of all Moss took a massive pay cut in order to play for the Patriots, going from a base salary of $9.25 million, to $3 million. Secondly if there is a team in the NFL that can handle a “problem child” it is Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Another celebrated “problem child” named Corey Dillon came into the fold a few years ago after wearing out his welcome with the Bengals. In 2004 Mr. Dillon rushed for over 1600 yards and the Patriots won their third Super Bowl. They have enough leaders in that locker room to police their own, Moss should get the message real quickly if he hasn’t by now. The last positive is that Moss who wore number 18 with Oakland is wearing number 81 with New England a definite sign he is trying to reverse his fortunes. If his attitude is reversed the fortunes will automatically turn around.

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