The Simple Reason Why Randy Moss Is The Best WR In NFL History
Nature vs. Nurture
In 1985, the rookie Jerry Rice joined the defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers, lead by quarterback Joe Montana. The Niners had won 2 Super Bowls in 3 years, 1982 and 1984.
In that rookie season for Rice, the Niners went 10-6 and lost in the NFC divisional playoff round.
Jerry Rice’s first ten years was spent exclusively in San Francisco, with the best front office in professional sports and those two guys named Montana and Young. He was an amazing player on a perennial world-championship caliber team. He won three Super Bowls there.
For the record: Lynn Swann won four Super Bowl rings in Pittsburgh a decade earlier.
In contrast, in 1998, rookie Randy Moss joined the 9-7 Minnesota Vikings (4th in the NFC Central Division) who had also lost in the NFC divisional playoff round.
In that year (‘98), Moss shocked and dominated the NFL from his first game (where a Tampa Bay defense watched the Minnesota Viking rookie catch four balls for 95 yards and two touchdowns), and finished a rookie season with 69 receptions, 1313 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Talk about a record not going away any time soon.
The Moss Effect
An entirely new stratagem of defense had to be created because of the Viking rookie wide-receiver. It is was called the ‘Tampa Two’ (a Cover-2 shell defensive zone that held two safeties deep), a flat-out necessity for then Tampa Bay head coach Tony Dungy, who, in the NFC Central at the time, would see the Vikings and Moss twice a year.
In that first season, the Vikings lost ONE game by a field goal, went 15-1, and missed the Super Bowl because a veteran placekicker cruelly shanked a chip shot in the 1998 NFC Championship Game.
The owner of the 1998 Minnesota Vikings was Billy Joe “Red” McCombs–a car salesman.
The quarterback for that crazy 1998 season was, for two games, journeyman Brad Johnson, then a recycled blast-from-the-past named Randall Cunningham, who would never have another meaningful season in the NFL
NINE seasons later, in 2007, after racking up incredible numbers in fleeting partnerships with quarterbacks like Daunte Culpepper, Jeff George, Gus Frerotte, Kerry Collins and a sundry of athletes who barely got bubblegum cards, Moss joined Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in New England.
The new Patriot wideout was a supernova of production during the 2007 season, catching an NFL record 23 touchdowns and leading New England to the first undefeated regular season in NFL history.
Randy Moss ran past the swiftest defenders in the game like they were running backward. Moss didn’t just beat single coverage, he beat triple-zone coverage. He beat everything, and with a 47-inch vertical leap, made the catches only Randy Moss could make.
He was so good that CBS broadcaster Howie Long once said of him:
“He’s too good for this league! You got another league?!”
So–returning to the coaches.
Randy Moss comes around ONCE in a lifetime. You pick him.
So, congratulations, Randy, you’ve now made the ultimate list of great NFL players. No one worth their salt denies what you’ve done on the football field. Everyone enjoyed watching you play and Minnesota Vikings fans around the world will miss the memories you brought to us.
In fact, if there are three things missing these days from our lives, they are these wonderful words–
“Bomb to Moss!”
When that ball was in the air, we were always sure you would come down with it. Thanks for being a Minnesota Viking.
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