Why Randy Moss is the G.O.A.T
The year before he becomes eligible for the NFL Hall of Fame, Sean makes the case that Randy Moss is the greatest receiver to ever lace up cleats.
Jerry Rice is the definition of excellence.
He was the son of a bricklayer and made his start at Mississippi Valley State — not even a Division I NCAA team. Bill Walsh and the San Francisco 49ers came calling in 1985 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Men lie, women lie, but numbers do not. Rice is the statistical leader in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. He currently holds at least 100 different National Football League numbers and is widely considered to be one of the greatest football players of all-time, let alone the greatest wide receiver of all-time. However, what if I told you he wasn’t? What if there was someone who was even better than the great Jerry Rice?
Enter Randy Moss.
Randy Gene Moss of Rand, West Virginia is an enigma. During his tenure in the NFL, where he played on five teams over a 14 year career, no one was really sure what fueled the athletic specimen that was Moss. Whether it was dreams of achieving legendary status with championships and records or the seven-figure salary he was receiving annually, fans didn’t care. They just got to sit back, relax, and watch the show.
Let’s go back to the beginning. Moss had lost at a chance to play for his boyhood team, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, after a racially-charged fight back in 1995. This would lead to Moss’ first run-in with jail time. He would go on to redshirt his freshman year after signing with Florida State University. His time as a Seminole would be short-lived, however; he tested positive for marijuana and was promptly dismissed from the program. He would eventually land at Marshall University.
During his two years at Marshall, Moss would accumulate 3,529 receiving yards and an eye-popping 54 touchdowns. His 26-touchdown 1997 season would leave him in fourth place for Heisman voting in the year that Michigan’s Charles Woodson was voted the winner.
After more off-field issues hampered his draft status, Moss would fall to 21st in the NFL Draft and land with the Minnesota Vikings. He would enjoy six incredible seasons in Minneapolis, beginning with breaking the NFL record for receiving touchdowns by a rookie with 17. He would surpass the 1,000 yard threshold five of his first six seasons. His lowest touchdown total during his time in Minnesota was seven.
His two seasons in Oakland were a dark period. Randy posted respectable numbers that were admittedly below his standards.
Randy went on to have an epic resurgence during his time in New England.He re-emerged as one of the great receivers of all time playing with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. He would be a part of the only team to ever go 16–0 where he put up a record-setting 23 receiving touchdowns. Both these records still stand today.
His last couple of seasons, in which he had stints back in Minnesota and Tennessee before finishing off with the San Francisco 49ers, did not bear much fruit for Moss. He went to the Super Bowl with the 49ers, but he was largely phased out of the offence despite still showing signs of the electric talent he’d show before.
The argument for Moss can’t be longevity; Jerry Rice played 20 seasons with San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle compared to Moss’ 14. However, Rice played with some excellent quarterbacks in GOAT-candidate Joe Montana and Hall of Famer Steve Young. Outside of Tom Brady, it was usually Moss who made his quarterbacks looked good. Here are some of the names Randy caught passes from: Brad Johnson, Jeff George, Todd Bouman, Gus Frerotte, Kerry Collins, Andrew Walter, Matt Cassel, Vince Young, Aaron Brooks, Spergon Wynn, Rusty Smith, Brian Hoyer, Daunte Culpepper and Randall Cunningham in the twilight of his career.
Randy Moss, Cris Carter, and Daunte Culpepper wreaked havoc on defenses during the late 90s.
If you were to ask most NFL defensive coordinators, they would tell you, along with current Patriots’ tight end Rob Gronkowski, Moss is arguably the biggest matchup nightmares in modern NFL history. Especially during his time in Minnesota; double-teaming Moss allowed fellow receiver Cris Carter to wreak havoc, but playing Moss one-on-one was definitely an ill-advised decision. At 6’4, with a 39 inch vertical and legitimate 4.2 speed, no single human had a prayer against him in man coverage.
Randy played against better athletes and more complex defences than Jerry on a game to game basis. Even with him seeing the game’s best defenders on every single play, defensive coordinators were forced to implement defensive gameplans that were unheard of at the time. Cover 2, bracket coverage, cloud coverage, hovering a safety over the top of one receiver. These are all defences that Randy saw every single week, while Jerry Rice was putting up numbers against largely vanilla defences. While it’s true that the 49ers offences in the 80s forced changes in NFL defences, it was because of the revolutionary West Coast scheme, not Jerry Rice’s transformative talent. Randy never played in a revolutionary offensive system. He forced changes in NFL defences through pure athletic ability and game destroying plays.
Moss even affected the way teams in his division drafted. The year after Randy broke into the league, the Packers drafted three cornerbacks. Two of them, Mike McKenzie and Antuan Edwards, were at least six feet tall, a feature largely directed towards defending the 6’4 Randy Moss. The move was not successful.
Also, my editor Riley says Jerry Rice is a cheater. Just saying.
If you want a pretty resume with championships and motivational quotes from your receiver, Jerry Rice is your guy. I cannot deny greatness and disrespect Rice. However, if you want one-liners and athletic prowess, you cannot deny Randy Gene Moss.
Straight cash, homie.
Sean Fevrier is a sports writer for theocho.ca, perennial 5th place in most fantasy football leagues and Tom Brady worshiper. You can always find him running five minutes late for class. Follow the mayhem that is Sean on Twitter at @seanfevrier.
