Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Randy Moss
Its been several months since the Vikings traded Randy Moss to the Raiders for Napoleon Harris and a first round pick and I'm still pissed off about it.
What really pisses me off is that seemingly every sports person blames Randy Moss for the Vikings losing. Saying he is a disruptive force, blah, blah, blah. I never cared because for all his talk he backed it up. Seriously in his seven seasons he had only one season where he played in less than 16 games (13 last season), averaged 82 catches a season (574 catches), averaged 1306 yards (9142 yards), and averaged almost 13 TDs a season (90 TDs). As far as I can tell that is the greatest 7 year strech in NFL history. He may not be the best WR ever but he is up there already. But during that stretch the Vikes went 64-48 (.571 WP) and made the playoffs 4 times and the NFC conference game twice.
Yet Moss is blamed for the Vikings losing. Why not blame the D that except for his rookie season was ranked in the mid to high 20s in the league every year? Why not blame the O-line that cost the Vikes more big plays than most Ds do? Why not blame Tice who couldn't manage the clock for the love of anything? But because Moss got frustrated with his hard work constantly being put to waste he is to blame for it? Does anyone blame Peyton Manning who puts up God-like QB numbers but his D sucks thus costing him games? He has won about as much as Moss but he isn't nearly as maligned. It could be a race based thing but I don't want to play that card.
Moss wasn't the reason the Vikings lost. He may have been an asshole and a loudmouth but he shouldn't be held accountable for that teams woes when he did everything he could (along with Culpepper and most of that Vikes O) to win.
Stats taken from ESPN.com.
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What really pisses me off is that seemingly every sports person blames Randy Moss for the Vikings losing. Saying he is a disruptive force, blah, blah, blah. I never cared because for all his talk he backed it up. Seriously in his seven seasons he had only one season where he played in less than 16 games (13 last season), averaged 82 catches a season (574 catches), averaged 1306 yards (9142 yards), and averaged almost 13 TDs a season (90 TDs). As far as I can tell that is the greatest 7 year strech in NFL history. He may not be the best WR ever but he is up there already. But during that stretch the Vikes went 64-48 (.571 WP) and made the playoffs 4 times and the NFC conference game twice.
Yet Moss is blamed for the Vikings losing. Why not blame the D that except for his rookie season was ranked in the mid to high 20s in the league every year? Why not blame the O-line that cost the Vikes more big plays than most Ds do? Why not blame Tice who couldn't manage the clock for the love of anything? But because Moss got frustrated with his hard work constantly being put to waste he is to blame for it? Does anyone blame Peyton Manning who puts up God-like QB numbers but his D sucks thus costing him games? He has won about as much as Moss but he isn't nearly as maligned. It could be a race based thing but I don't want to play that card.
Moss wasn't the reason the Vikings lost. He may have been an asshole and a loudmouth but he shouldn't be held accountable for that teams woes when he did everything he could (along with Culpepper and most of that Vikes O) to win.
Stats taken from ESPN.com.
