As of this morning (October 6 2010) Randy Moss has been traded to the Minnesota Vikings for a third round draft pick. Anyone who has been following Moss this season so far knows that he is in the last year in his contract and wondered what the hold up was on extending that. It didn't make anything better when Tom Brady (who was also in the last year of his contract) got a deal that made him the highest paid player in the NFL by numbers. The New England Patriots have always been a team that didn't like distractions and this looked like it was one, especially after Moss had his post game interview after the Bengals game when he even said it would be his last year there. Throw in some reports that he wasn't very happy only being thrown to one time in the first half of the Dolphin game where they trailed 6-7 and it looked like his time in New England was up.
Randy Moss now rejoins the Minnesota Vikings for the first time since the 2004 season when it looked like he was becoming a distraction for that football team. In fact that year involved problems like him going to the locker room before the final game of that season was over. The most memorable thing he did that year was the playoff game against the Green Bay Packers when he pretended to moon the Packer crowd at the end of the game in what some looked at as disrespect. The quarterback for the Packers at that time was Brett Favre. Now they will be teammates. Don't worry about if Favre remembers Moss mooning his then home crowd. I doubt he minds these days considering how he left Green Bay and the fact that he was mooned when he returned last year where he was also booed. We all know Brett got the last laugh though when he beat the Packers for the second time that year (the first time making him the only quarterback to beat all 32 teams in the NFL in his career). Brett Favre and Randy Moss has been described as being good friends and someone that Favre has always wanted to play with. Now they get that chance, but how well will it go? This isn't like back in '03 '04 when they were both younger. We're now talking about a 41 year old quarterback and a wide reciever in his mid 30's. This also isn't an offense that Moss is used to playing in. I guess practice will make perfect though, and they will need the practice for an offense that ranks near the bottom of the league in passing. Percy Harvin has still been having problems and the others just haven't been able to step up. With Sidney Rice still out look for Randy Moss to be a huge target for Favre to throw it up to (which is the way he really likes to do it) starting with the Monday Night Football game with the New York Jets where Moss will return to Revis Island. Darrelle Revis will be making his return to the Jets for the first time since he played the Patriots when he had to leave the game when he pulled a hamstring trying to defend a touchdown pass against.... RANDY MOSS!! Will the results be the same or will Revis be ready to take back over his island? It should be a fun game, and the Vikings should be a fun team to watch again, especially when they do get Rice back. The only thing to decide now is what number Moss will wear. His old number of 84 is available so that looks like the way to go. The Vikings may want to give him another number though to get fans to have to go out and get a new Randy Moss jersey (this is still a business). I think the Favre to Moss connection will be just fine. The old heads will show the young bucks how it's done the remainder of the year. What do you guys think? And while we're on it, what does that mean for Tom Brady and the Patriots? Brady won 3 super bowls with recievers you didn't really know but he may have been spoiled by Randy Moss, especially since his double teaming really opened it up for Wes Welker. The Partiots will have to go back to doing it the way they used to, playing team football.
