Randy Moss played a fine game on Sunday, but the wide receiver may have lost some Patriots fans following the win over the Bengals.
Moss spoke to the media for nearly 20 minutes regarding his future — or lack thereof — in New England, stating, "I just think from a business standpoint, this probably will be my last year here as a Patriot, and I'm not retiring."
NESN will air Moss' postgame news conference in its entirety, along with head coach Bill Belichick's reaction from his Monday afternoon news conference, during a NESN Daily special on Monday night at 8 p.m.
Below is the opening of Moss' news conference, according to NESN.com reporter Jeff Howe.
"Before I get to questions, man, I'd like to say something," Moss said. "I've been here for three years. This is my fourth season, and I understand the business end of the nature. And I understand you all have a job to do, so when it comes to football, I take my job seriously, I've said time and time again. But I think there's — I don’t really want to say here in the organization — but I think around here in the New England area, I think a lot of people don’t want to see me do good. And the reason why, I don’t know. I really don’t care, but I just want to let you all know, y'all [are] the ones doing all the writing — all the pen and the pad and the ink. I don’t have any, so anything I may say will get blown out of proportion.
"I think earlier in the week, I don’t know where he's at, but I got asked a question about me being here and being unhappy. Me being unhappy doesn’t have nothing to do with me toning my game down. I'm here, and I understand my role. My role is to take the ball deep and take the top off the defense. I think earlier in the week, a lot of people were coming at me wrong by me being unhappy. It's like, for instance, if you work for somebody. Everybody in here, you work for somebody unless you're independent, and if your boss comes to you, sometimes you want your boss to tell you you're doing a good job. You know what I'm saying? That’s every man or woman in here that works for somebody. You want your boss to be able to come to you and say he read your column last night or this morning, [and] he liked your column.
"And that’s just that way with football. If you do a good job and you think you're doing a good job, you want to be appreciated. I really don’t think, me personally, that I'm appreciated. And I don’t want y'all to take anything out of context that I'm saying because I am a man, and this is a job. I take my job very seriously to heart. I want to let you all know. I want to let the fans — the real fans of the New England Patriots — know I'm not here to start any trouble. I'm here to play my last year out of my contract, and I've said time and time again before I signed my first contract here I want to be here in New England. It's a great group of guys here, a well-coached group here, and I never said that I wanted to leave New England. But I think that a lot of things that have been written or been said have been looking at me in a negative light, and I don’t want it to be in a negative light.
"I just want everybody to understand. You can print it. I don’t care how you put it in your ink. I want to be here as a Patriot. I love being here. But I just think from a business standpoint this probably will be my last year here as a Patriot, and I'm not retiring. I'm still going to play some football. I just wanted to get that off my chest and let y'all understand, man, that this is a business, and I'll open it up for questions."
To see more of Moss and Belichick, be sure to watch NESN at 8 p.m. on Monday night for a NESN Daily special.
