Of course, there was the obvious postgame diatribe in which Moss criticized Brad Childress and praised Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and whole slew of other Patriots (all the way down the line to Myra Kraft). He said he “missed the hell” out of the Patriots — “every last helmet in that locker room.”
Strong words, for sure, and it wouldn’t be insane to say that bizarre postgame news conferences in the bowels of Gillette Stadium have lost him two jobs already this season.
Yet, if conspiracy theorists are going to come out of the woodwork, they should head directly to the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Patriots.
The Vikings trailed 21-10 with less than 10 minutes left in the game. On third-and-13 from the New England 33-yard line, Favre lobbed a deep ball up for Moss to catch in the end zone. Brandon Meriweather saw Moss studder-step as if he was running a short route, and the safety rushed hard at Moss, who then broke up the field.
Rather than giving up an easy score, Meriweather grabbed Moss to slow him down, drawing a pass interference penalty that would set the Vikings up at the 9-yard line.
However, it seemed clear — both in real time and on replay — that Moss could have easily made an effort and hauled in the pass for a touchdown. Instead, he stopped running and let the ball hit the turf.
Three plays later, Favre dropped back to pass and was leveled by Myron Pryor. As everyone knows, Favre could hardly get up as he sustained a healthy-sized gash in his chin. The quarterback was carted off the field and didn’t return, requiring eight stitches to close the wound.
Now, Favre has a lot of control on that team (some may argue more than Childress himself), and maybe he didn’t like the fact that Moss didn’t make the effort and maybe the ol’ gunslinger didn’t appreciate the fact that he got knocked into next week a couple of plays later.
Or maybe that’s all a bunch of hogwash. Who knows? When a Hall of Fame wide receiver gets sent packing from his second team in the span of a month, we’re all left to try to figure out what is going on.
What do you think?
Did Randy Moss’ lack of effort lead to his being waived by Vikings?Market Research
