Sports

Four games after trading away a third round pick for their former franchise superstar, the Vikings cut Randy Moss today. Anyone who saw Randy Moss’s post game press conference in New England knew that all was not right with Moss in Minnesota. Moss repeatedly said how he missed the Pats and went out of his way to praise head coach Bill Belichick. Here are some highlights from Moss’s post game rant:

• “I really haven’t had a chance to really talk to the guys, so this was no disrespect to the Minnesota Vikings and their organization. The captains — Wilfork, Tommy Boy, Mayo. Am I forgetting somebody? Kevin Faulk. Man, I miss them guys, man. I miss the team. It was hard for me to come here and play. Been an up-and-down rollercoaster emotionally all week. And then to be able to come in here and see those guys running plays that I know what they’re doing, and the success they had on the field, the running game — so, I kind of know what kind of feeling they have in their locker room, man, and I just want to be able to tell the guys that I miss the hell out of them. Every last helmet in that locker room, man.”
• “To the New England Patriots fans, that ovation at the end of the game — that really felt heartwarming. I think I actually shedded a tear for that. But like I said, man, it’s been an emotional rollercoaster this whole week. I tried to prepare. Tried to talk to the players and coaches about how this game was going to be played and a couple tendencies here, couple tendencies here. The bad part about it — you have six days to prepare for a team, and on the seventh day, that Sunday, meaning today, I guess they come over to me and say, ‘Dag, Moss, you was right about a couple plays and a couple schemes they were going to run.’ It hurts as a player that you put a lot of hard work in all week, and toward the end of the week, Sunday, when you get on the field, that’s when they acknowledge about the hard work you put in throughout the week. That’s actually a disappointment.”
• “Do I know what next season and the future’s going to bring? No, I do not. But all I can say is, man, it’s a lot of work that we leave on the field each day. It’s a lot of film study that we leave in that room each day. I know how hard these guys work here in New England, and (all) that I really tried to do is take what the best coach in football history has brought upon me, or the knowledge that he’s given me about the game of football, and I tried to just sprinkle it off to the guys the best way I know how.”
• “I don’t know how many more times I’m going to be up here in New England, but I’m going to leave the New England Patriots, Coach Belichick, man, with a salute, man. I love you guys, I miss you, I’m out.”

All that must not have gone over too well with Moss’s most recent former coach, Brad Childress. Moss acted like he was angling for a return to New England next season, and now he’s a Hall of Fame player with declining skills looking for his third team this season.

Someone will pick him up. The true winner in this situation is the New England Patriots. They took some heat for cutting the cord on Randy, but they basically turned a four game rental into a third round draft pick. I think it’s unlikely that Moss returns to New England, but the team has proven time and time again that it knows how to make the super-shrewd moves, so anything is possible.