Randy Moss

Randy Gene Moss (born February 13, 1977) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans and the San Francisco 49ers. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most talented wide receivers of all time, he holds the NFL single-season touchdown reception record (23 in 2007), as well as the NFL single-season touchdown reception record for a rookie (17 in 1998). All-time, Moss ranks second in career touchdown receptions as well as fourth in career receiving yards. Possessing much superior speed, size, and leaping ability over most of his defenders, he often was famously known for securing contested catches in tight coverage by physically overpowering them. The term "mossed", referring to this ability, became a common term in football lexicon.

Moss played college football for Marshall University, and twice earned All-America honors. A six-time Pro Bowl and four-time first-team All-Pro selection, Moss was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft, where he played for seven years before a trade in 2005 brought him to the Oakland Raiders. In 2007, Moss was traded to the New England Patriots, where he set the single-season record for touchdown receptions and helped lead the Patriots to a record breaking 16–0 regular season. In October 2010, Moss returned to the Vikings in a trade from the Patriots but was waived less than a month later and then claimed by the Tennessee Titans. After sitting out the 2011 season, Moss signed a one-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers in 2012 before retiring following the season. He played in two Super Bowl games, XLII with the Patriots and XLVII with the 49ers, both losses. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018, and is a member of the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Post-football, he began working for ESPN as a studio analyst for its '' Sunday NFL Countdown'' and '' Monday Night Countdown'' programs.

Early life

Moss was born in Rand, West Virginia. He attended DuPont High School, one of two schools that later consolidated into Riverside High School, where he excelled in football, basketball, baseball, and track. Randy was also on the school's debate team. On the football field, Moss led the DuPont Panthers to back-to-back state championships in 1992 and 1993. He was a star at wide receiver, but also played free safety, returned kickoffs and punts, and was the team's kicker and punter. In 1994, he was honored with the Harrison H. Kennedy Award as the West Virginia Football Player of the Year. ''Parade'' magazine named him to their annual All-American high school football team in 1995 and in 2009 named him one of the 50 greatest high school football players of all time. At DuPont, he was a teammate of future Chicago Bears linebacker Bobbie Howard.

In addition to playing football at DuPont, Moss was twice named West Virginia Player of the Year in basketball (in 1994 when he was co-player of the year and in 1995), where he was a teammate of future NBA player Jason Williams. In his senior season of basketball, Moss averaged 30.2 points, 13.7 rebounds, 5.1 steals, 3.8 blocks, and 3.1 assists while shooting 60% from field; he scored a school-record 1,713 career points.

As a sophomore in 1992, at the age of 15, Moss joined the track & field team and was the West Virginia state champion in the 100 and 200 meters with times of 10.94 seconds and 21.95 seconds, respectively. This was the only year he competed on the school's track team, but he would later join the Marshall track team and lower his 200 m time to 21.15 seconds. He also played center field for the baseball team.

College career

Moss's dream was to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but he also considered going to Ohio State, where his half-brother, Eric, had played offensive tackle. Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz said "Randy Moss was the best high school football player I've ever seen." Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden said "He was as good as Deion Sanders. Deion's my measuring stick for athletic ability, and this kid was just a bigger Deion."

After originally signing a letter of intent to play college football with Notre Dame in 1995, Moss took part in a racially charged fight at his high school that left one person hospitalized. On March 23, 1995, Moss had backed a friend in a hallway fight against a white student who had allegedly used racist comments towards Randy's friend. Moss was initially charged with a felony for kicking the student, but it was later reduced to a misdemeanor. On August 1, 1995, Moss pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to 30 days behind bars at the South-Central Regional Jail in Charleston, West Virginia. He served 3 days in jail starting that night and would be required to serve the remaining 27 days within the following 18 months, after he completed his freshman year in college. Moss was expelled from DuPont and completed his education at Cabell Alternative School.

Notre Dame subsequently denied his enrollment application, but this did not stop another high-profile college football program from giving him a chance. Notre Dame officials suggested he attend Florida State due to the reputation of its coach, Bobby Bowden, for handling troubled players.

Freshman (1995)

Because of his signed letter of intent at Notre Dame, the NCAA considered him a transfer student to Florida State, so he had to redshirt the 1995 football season.

Redshirt freshman season (1996)

In 1996, while serving his 30-day jail sentence in a work-release program from 1995, Moss tested positive for marijuana, thus violating his probation, and was dismissed from Florida State. He served an additional 60 days in jail for the probation violation.

Ultimately, Moss transferred to Marshall University, about an hour's drive from his home. Because Marshall was then a Division I-AA school, NCAA rules allowed him to transfer there without losing any further eligibility. In 1996, he set the NCAA Division I-AA records for the most games with a touchdown catch in a season (14), most consecutive games with a touchdown catch (13), most touchdown passes caught in a season (28 – tying Jerry Rice's 1984 record), and most receiving yards gained by a freshman in a season (1,709 on 78 catches), a record which still stands. Moss was also the leading kickoff returner in Division I-AA on the season, with 612 total yards and a 34.0-yard average. The 1996 Marshall Thundering Herd went undefeated and won the Division I-AA title, with Moss having four touchdown receptions in the 1996 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game. It was Marshall's last season before moving to Division I-A.

At the Southern Conference indoor track championships, Moss ran the 200 meters in 21.15 seconds, missing the conference record by only .02 seconds. Although Moss had not raced competitively for four years, his time was one of the best in the country that year.

Sophomore season (1997)

In the 1997 season, Marshall's first in Division I-A, Moss and Quarterback Chad Pennington were the centerpiece of an explosive offense that led the Thundering Herd to the Mid-American Conference title. Moss caught 26 touchdown passes that season, at the time a Division I-A record, and was a first-team All-American.

The first game of the season was at West Virginia University where Marshall lost. The second game of the season saw Moss pick up right where he left off in 1996. Facing Army, Moss caught 5 balls for 186 yards and two touchdowns. One touchdown went for 79 yards in which Pennington lobbed the ball down the left sideline. Moss leaped over an Army defender to snag the ball out of the air at the 40-yard line while the safety crashed into his teammate, knocking both men down. Moss galloped the last 50 yards untouched for the score. The other touchdown reception was his career-long of 90 yards that came on a short screen pass on third down. Moss caught the ball on the right side of the field at his own 8-yard line, ran past 3 defenders in the middle of the field at the 15-yard line, hurdled two defenders coming from both sides of the left hash marks at the 25-yard line, then raced past the last defender at the 50-yard line before finally seeing daylight down the left sideline.

A week later, Moss posted his third career 200+ yard receiving game, against Kent State. Two weeks after that was his fourth and final 200+ yard game in college, recording 13 catches for 205 yards and a Marshall single-game record of 5 touchdown receptions against Ball State.

In the 1997 Ford Motor City Bowl against Ole Miss, Moss added his 26th touchdown of the season on Marshall's first offensive play from scrimmage. He streaked down the right sideline and caught an 80-yard touchdown pass from Pennington to tie the score at 7–7. NCAA rules at the time did not allow for statistics from bowl games to be combined with regular-season stats, so the touchdown did not officially increase his season touchdown record. The two teams traded the lead several times in the fourth quarter before Ole Miss running back Deuce McAllister scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 31 seconds to play, giving them a 34–31 lead. Trying to pull out a last-second win, Pennington connected with Moss on a 40-yard pass on the final play of the game, but he was stripped of the ball as time expired. Moss finished the game with 6 receptions for 173 yards.

Moss finished his career at Marshall having scored at least one touchdown in all 28 games that he played. He won the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the season's outstanding receiver regardless of position, and was a finalist for the 1997 Heisman Trophy (finishing fourth in the balloting, behind Ryan Leaf, Peyton Manning, and Charles Woodson, who won the award). A controversial comment was made by Randy Moss in 1997 at a ceremony at Marshall University where he was commenting in regards to the 1970 plane crash that killed most their football team that the crash "was a tragedy, but it really wasn't nothing big". Moss later claimed that the quotes were taken out of context. Nate Ruffin, who is a surviving member of the 1970 Football Team, later met with Randy Moss.

College statistics

* Includes stats from the 1997 Motor City Bowl against Ole Miss

NCAA records

Division I-AA – regular season

* Most games with a touchdown reception in a season – 11 (1996)
* Most consecutive games with a touchdown reception in a season – 11 (1996)
* Most receiving yards gained by a freshman in a season – 1073 (1996)
* Most touchdown receptions caught by a freshman in a season – 19 (1996 – record for all NCAA divisions)

Division I-AA – playoffs

* Most touchdown receptions in a single game – 4 (vs. Montana, December 21, 1996)
* Most yards receiving in a single game – 288 (vs. Delaware, November 30, 1996)
* Most touchdown receptions in a tournament – 9 (4 games in 1996)
* Most yards receiving in a tournament – 636 (4 games in 1996)

Professional career

1998 NFL Draft

Moss skipped his junior and senior seasons at Marshall and entered the NFL Draft. He did not attend the NFL Combine, opting instead for an individual workout at Marshall's pro day. After the pro day was complete, Marshall head coach Bob Pruett informed the media that Moss had ran two 40 yard sprints which timed at 4.24 and 4.28 by scouts' hand timers. Moss also posted a vertical leap of 47 inches. Numerous teams had scouts on hand with many noting the work-out was jaw dropping, with one Cowboys scout naming Moss the "most gifted prospect in football history".

During the 1998 NFL Draft, Moss, who was projected as a high first-round pick, was taken by the Minnesota Vikings with the 21st overall pick after a number of NFL clubs—even those in need of a WR—were concerned with Moss's well-documented legal problems. Before the draft Moss was quoted as saying teams that passed on him "will regret it once they see what kind of a player I am and what kind of guy I really am." The team most often cited for passing on Moss is the Dallas Cowboys. Moss grew up a Cowboys fan and wanted to play for the Cowboys. The Cowboys wanted Moss, but because of many off-field incidents of their own, team owner and GM Jerry Jones did not feel the team could draft Moss. Moss felt that the Cowboys lied to him because they had told him they would draft him. On draft day, Dallas went so far as to have a scout in Charleston, West Virginia, the same town where Moss and his mother were watching the draft. Dallas star receiver Michael Irvin even called to apologize to Moss, because Irvin's own off-field problems were a main reason Moss was not drafted by Dallas. After the draft, Moss made a point of beating the Cowboys any time he faced them, getting his first opportunity to do so in Week 13 of his rookie season. In a game held at Texas Stadium, Moss torched Dallas with a 163-yard, 3-receptions for 3-touchdowns performance.

After the draft, Moss signed a 4-year, $4.5 million contract that included an additional $4 million in bonuses and incentives. As part of the deal, he received a $2 million signing bonus. Moss originally wore #18 in training camp (a number he would eventually wear for Oakland) but switched to the more conventional #84 before the regular season began.

Minnesota Vikings

1998 season

In 1998, Moss helped the Vikings to become the number 1 rated offense ever at the time, setting the single-season record for scoring (later surpassed by the 2007 New England Patriots, a team that also featured Moss) with 556 points.

The Vikings opened the season with a 31–7 rout against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Moss's first NFL game would also be his first multi-touchdown game as he recorded 4 receptions for 95 yards and two touchdowns. His first NFL reception came on the third play of the game on an 11-yard pass from Brad Johnson. His first touchdown was a 48-yard acrobatic grab over defensive back Floyd Young late in the first quarter, in which Moss juggled the ball 3 times before securing it for the score. He added a 31-yard touchdown reception on the Vikings' first possession of the second quarter to give the Vikings a 21–0 lead.

His first ''Monday Night Football'' game came in Week 5 against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. He had 5 receptions for 190 yards and two touchdowns, including touchdown grabs of 52 yards and 44 yards, and two other receptions of 46 yards and 41 yards. He also had a 75-yard touchdown catch on the Vikings' first possession of the game that was nullified due to an offensive holding penalty.

Against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, Moss finished with 3 catches for 163 yards and 3 touchdowns all for 50+ yards as the Vikings beat the Cowboys 46–36. Moss was the first rookie to score 3 touchdowns on Thanksgiving.

They finished with a 15–1 record and were poised to represent the NFC in Super Bowl XXXIII. However, the Atlanta Falcons stunned the Vikings by winning the NFC Championship Game 30–27 in overtime.

At the end of the 1998 regular season, Moss was named a Pro Bowl starter and NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year for his rookie-record 17 touchdown receptions and the third-highest receiving yardage (1,313) total.

1999 season

In 1999, Moss had another impressive season, catching 80 passes for 1,413 yards and 11 touchdowns, including a punt return for a touchdown. He went on to record five receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown in the Vikings 27–10 NFC wildcard playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys. Minnesota lost in the divisional round to the St. Louis Rams 49–37, despite Moss catching nine passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns. Moss was fined $40,000, which was later reduced to $25,000, during that game due to squirting an NFL referee with a water bottle. There was a stipulation that he would have to pay the difference in addition to any other fine if he had another run-in with the league.

Moss earned his second straight Pro Bowl appearance, and turned in a record-breaking performance. He had 9 receptions for a Pro Bowl record 212 yards and was given the game's Most Valuable Player award.

2000 season

The 2000 season featured second-year quarterback Daunte Culpepper leading the team. Culpepper had been the team's first-round draft pick in 1999; with a pick they received from the Redskins for quarterback Brad Johnson. He had been selected largely due to his extremely strong arm, which the team believed was perfectly suited for Moss's deep routes. The decision proved correct. Culpepper was a rookie sensation, the Vikings started 7–0, and Moss was a leading MVP candidate. For the second time in three seasons, Moss punished the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day, including a spectacular 2nd-half touchdown in which Moss caught the ball with his entire body out of bounds, aside from his toes. The play would be the feature shot in NFL commercials for years to come. Moss finished the season with a career-high 1,437 yards and league-leading 15 touchdown catches. In doing so, he became the youngest and fastest player to ever catch over 3,000 yards and 45 touchdowns, earning him his 3rd consecutive trip to the Pro Bowl, and 2nd selection to the All Pro team. The Vikings would make it to the NFC Championship game, only to be blown out 41–0 by the New York Giants.

2001 season

In the offseason, Moss and his agent Danté DiTrapano began negotiating a new contract with the Minnesota Vikings. He was scheduled to earn $3.5 million in 2001. But Moss, who was entering the final year of the rookie contract he signed in 1998, was seeking a long-term deal that would make him the highest-paid player in the NFL. His agent said, "We want to break the tradition of quarterbacks being the highest-paid players." One option the Vikings had would be to apply the franchise tag after the season ended, but sources stated that Moss would request a trade if that happened because it would still be less than what he could command on the open market.

Just prior to the start of training camp in July, Vikings owner Red McCombs signed Moss to an 8-year, $75 million contract extension. The extension included a $10 million signing bonus and another $8 million in guarantees.

Despite finishing the season with 10 touchdowns and posting at least 1,000 receiving yards for the fourth consecutive season, Moss failed to make the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career.

2002 season

After replacing Dennis Green on an interim basis to end the 2001 season, Mike Tice was officially named head coach on January 10, 2002. One of the strategies the Vikings' first-year head coach came up with was a formula to get Moss the ball more often. Coach Tice called it the Randy Ratio. It was an effort on the coaches part to throw 40% of the passes to Moss as a way to keep him involved in the offense more than he had been in the 2001 season when he had stretches in games where he was being shut out, and partly to use more game clock by sustaining long drives to give the Vikings defense a chance to rest. An assistant coach would stand on the sidelines during games and track how many times Moss had been thrown to, and then inform Tice of the percentages so that he is always aware of it. In the 2001 season, the Vikings record was 4–1 when Moss had 40% of the passes thrown his direction, and 1–10 in other games.

The strategy was a response to the 'Randy Rules,' as Vikings receiver Chris Walsh called them. The Randy Rules, similar to the Jordan Rules, were a defensive strategy that teams employed when facing the Vikings to try and eliminate or reduce Randy's impact on the game, and to prevent Moss from being matched up one-on-one with defenders because of his ability to burn them deep or outjump them in single coverage. Opposing teams would routinely double cover Moss with techniques such as having a cornerback attempt to jam him at the line of scrimmage, having a corner defend underneath with a safety defending against the deep ball, having a zone defense roll to Moss's side of the field, and assigning "spies" to follow Moss everywhere he went.

Coach Tice discussed the strategy, explaining that Moss would be running more short and intermediate routes and fewer deep patterns. In training camp, Moss worked specifically on 12 new routes that he had rarely run in his first 4 NFL seasons, such as crossing patterns over the middle of the field and hook routes. Coach Tice said, "When we say Randy Ratio, everybody in the league thinks, 'OK, now they're going to throw the ball down the field to Randy more and more and more.' That's so far from the truth. In fact, we'll probably throw the ball down the field to Randy this year even less."

The Randy Ratio did not last very long, as Tice scrapped the idea midway through the 2002 season. Randy Moss said "I didn't really care much about the Randy Ratio when it was brought up. I just wanted to win." While Moss caught a career-high 106 passes, he also had a career-low 7 touchdown receptions, and the Vikings struggled to a 6–10 record. Tice suggested after the season that it was a mistake to inform opponents about his offensive gameplan, but that it was a tool "to motivate ossand say he was the guy."

2003 season

Moss's fortunes took a better turn on the football field during the 2003 regular season, where he became the second wide receiver in NFL history (behind Jerry Rice in 1995) to play more than 12 games (he played 16) while averaging over 100 yards and one touchdown per contest. He finished with 111 receptions for 1,632 yards and 17 touchdowns. All three numbers either tied or became a new personal best for Moss. The Vikings finished the season 9–7. One of Moss's memorable highlights that year was when he lateraled to Moe Williams for a last-second touchdown during a home game against Denver.

In the offseason, he attended the Vikings strength and conditioning program and added five pounds of muscle to his frame.

2004 season

Moss started the season strong catching 8 touchdowns in his first 5 games of the season. However, he sustained a hamstring injury to his right leg against New Orleans

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