Detroit Lions Weblog

Why Randy Moss is My Favorite Player-or “Hate Everything About Football, Except Football”

First Off, their is no question that Randy Moss is one grade-A jackass! He is a chronic malcontent, a locker room cancer, and behaves in a borderline sociopathic manner. That being said, recent events have lead to my re-evaluation of him as a player.

The “Moon Dance”, in Green Bay, was the last straw for me. The uproar of many of sports cognoscenti in response to this event has changed my perceptions of Moss and these end-zone celebration dances. It may be my WWE-saturated world view, but I don’t see what was so terrible about Moss taunting the Packer fans. I do realize that much of the reaction is a result of his targeting the “paying customers”, as opposed to his opponents. Yet, I don’t think this incident should have lead to the sports establishment’s talking heads to collectively commence to wailing like a pack of nellies. If I hear again that the reason that this dance was so deplorable was that this was terrible behavior by a role model to children, I think I’ll vomit. I can remember many a backyard football game in my youth that my counterparts and I behaved in a degenerate manner that was TEN times worse than Moss’s dance. Maybe I’m a cretin, but I am sure many of you would be able to express the same or similar sentiments. Heck, in video games, you can probably do worse while celebrating a TD.

The point of this entry is not to justify Moss’s behavior. In our culture we need bad guys. Somebody has to be the scapegoat or heel. It is part of our collective consciousness. Moss may be an all-too-willing participant in this role, but that shouldn’t diminish his greatness. Football is not a discrete sport. Football is full of transgressive rituals and is precisely ruthless, yet we expect NFL players to be model citizens? It is not a sport for “nice guys”, a professional football player is a bad MF’er!

Many of the players come from at-risk social backgrounds. It is incongruous, to expect a white-controlled media, or white-owned sports teams, who are coached and managed mostly by whites, to truly understand the nature of these behaviors. Not to turn this into an issue of race, but undeniably there exists a chasm that separates the players from everyone else, most likely on the basis of class. A lot of the reaction to the “moon dance” may actually be a result of an over-compensation for the inability to control players at the skill positions, players who are of a different background and are more capable of playing the position (Position Envy?), and that is a source of frustration to the observers. Without getting too mired in pyscho-babble, I want to express that their is more than meets the eye here. I don’t think for one minute if Brett Favre had done the same dance in the Metrodome, that the reaction would have been as sanctimonious and boisterous.

A wise friend of mine coined the maxim, “Hate Everything about Football, except Football”. This may be the best tool for judging Moss. All of his antics aside, he is one of the 5 most dynamic players to have played in the last 10 years. Heck, he may be among the 10 most athletically-gifted players to ever play the game. On the basis of that alone, he deserves our respect. If there is one judgement I can make in regards to Moss, it is that he had better hope his work ethic, commitment and maturity will be enough someday to compensate for the loss of that incredible athletic ability. As he ages, if he doesn’t continue to grow as a player, his failure as a player may be among the most spectacular ever witnessed. The behaviors that would result maybe would be even more self-destructive and sociopathic.

The rumor is that the Vikings would like to trade Moss. I say bully, that would be the best thing to ever happen to the Lions. I would rest easily if I never again saw a group of Lion defensive backs chasing Moss from behind as he streaks towards the end zone, we have seen that enough! Many suitors will line up for Moss’s services and hopefully he will play someplace like Baltimore, Oakland, or Atlanta where the chances are the Lions will only play him once a year. I hope the Vikings enjoy their 5 win seasons, too.

Moss’s Career Stats:
G—REC—YDS—Y/G—AVG—TD—TD/REC
109-574—9142—83.9-15.9—-90—15.6%

Moss versus Lions:
REC—YDS—Y/G—AVG—TD—TD/REC
72—–1182—90.9-16.4—9—–12.5%