Randy Moss will retire after 13 awe-inspiring seasons. Drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1998, Moss scored 153 touchdowns and caught 954 passes over the course of his career. While playing with the New England Patriots, Moss broke a single season record by scoring 23 touchdowns.
Watching Moss run post routes and catch was poetry in motion. Imagine watching Stevie Wonder record Songs in the Key Life; Michael Jackson in a dance studio perfecting the moonwalk; or Denzel Washington performing Shakespeare on Broadway. If you closed your eyes for more than a few seconds, you were bound to miss a moment of greatness that couldn’t be duplicated by anyone else on the planet.
Moss was a freak of nature who possessed blazing speed and easily made one-handed catches as if he was grabbing a softball that was thrown underhanded.
Along with Michael Vick, Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson, he stands as one of the most athletically skilled players in NFL history.
However, Moss should have been the best NFL player in history. The way basketball enthusiasts rave about Michael Jordan’s greatness, football critics should feel the same way about Moss. He should have been the Muhammad Ali of the NFL.
And yet, he will be remembered mostly for his propensity to play below his skill level. Moss once told reporters, “I play when I want to.” For every amazing catch or run, Moss would mentally drift away and take plays off. He was so much better than his competition that he would allow himself to get bored during games and, at times, wouldn’t compete at all.
If Moss possessed an insatiable desire to win that was equal to Michael Jordan’s or Kobe Bryant’s killer instincts, he would have done insurmountable damage to the NFL record books. Instead, he will be remembered as a Hall of Fame player who occasionally gave his best. –amir shaw
