I don’t know why people aren’t taking Randy Moss calling it quits seriously.
He has been quitting on teammates for years. So why not quit on himself?
That’s the rub. It’s difficult to believe Moss would quit on himself because — in a way — it’s a selfless act. He took money from New England, Minnesota and Tennessee for nothing last season, and perhaps he couldn’t bring himself to do it again.
Maybe he has his pride. He’s not going to quit on his teammates for chump change.
“Randy has weighed his options and considered the offers and has decided to retire,” said his agent, Joel Segal.
If the retirement announcement — a declaration that likely will become temporary once the options and offers are more to Moss’ liking — was in part to garner attention, it did the trick.
One of the storylines in the 24 hours following Moss’ retirement announcement was how great he was — and not how far he has fallen, unwanted and unemployed.
It also triggered debate about Moss’ place in NFL history and whether he has a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He has a place. You can’t keep a player out with Moss’ offensive skills and the numbers he put up over his 13-year career: 954 catches, 14,858 yards and 153 touchdowns.
But there is debate because human nature dictates it is distasteful at best to honor a player like Moss, whose lack of respect for the game and his teammates became part of his resume.
From most accounts, Moss quit on the Vikings in their 41-0 loss to the New York Giants in the 2000 NFC title game. When asked about taking off plays in a November 2001 interview, he declared, “I play when I want to play.”
Moss walked off the field before the end of a 2004 game between the Vikings and Redskins with his team losing 21-18 and reportedly got into a postgame scuffle with teammate Matt Birk.
Last season, before Moss was traded by the Patriots, New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis talked about going up against Moss in their most recent game.
“In the second half, you could tell he was putting his foot on the brake,” Revis told reporters. “I mean, everybody knows that’s Randy. Sometimes he plays 100 percent. Sometimes he doesn’t.”
Shouldn’t all of this mean something when weighing a Hall of Fame legacy?
Unlike the National Baseball Hall of Fame — which lists character and integrity among its criteria for election — the Pro Football Hall of Fame has no such standard.
I am not suggesting that it should limit its wall to Boy Scouts. But there should be a difference between the sins of life and the sins against the game — a standard of character on the field.
Randy Moss falls far short of that.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
