Questions for Randy Moss: Unraveling the Great Receiver

Dollar for dollar, it’s hard to argue that Randy Moss isn’t one of the best, if not the best, ever to play the position. Hearing his story and what makes him tick would be “Straight Cash Homey!”

If I could interview a Patriot, it would be No. 81 from Rand, West Virginia.

Much has been made about Moss in the media. We know of his troubled past, but we also know what he can do as a football player, which is anything.

In his first year in the league, he set the single-season touchdown record for a rookie with 17.

Moss has always had a penchant for making tough catches look routine. He strides past defensive backs, making them look microscopic as he leaps out at them.

He runs so fast and yet makes it look effortless, as though the task were as easy as taking out the garbage. 

“Randy Moss is a player whose skills are diminishing, and he’s in denial of those eroding skills…Randy was a great receiver, but he lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career,” said his former offensive coordinator Tom Walsh, after Moss’ trade to New England.

Those “eroding” skills helped to score a record 23 touchdowns in 2007, breaking the NFL single-season receiving record of 22, previously held by Jerry Rice.

A great Moss quote appeared in a Boston Globe article by Mike Reiss and Christopher L. Gasper on Oct. 15, 2007:

"For all the negative attention that I caught coming to [New England], and y'all probably put some negative stuff in your columns—about what I've done in the past, how can I play, I've lost a step—I really didn't think about that throughout the season," said Moss.

"I just wanted to come in. Coach Belichick brought me into this organization; I just want to go out and make things happen. I don't really feed into any negativity."

I would want to know what, then, Randy feeds off. Here are some questions I’d ask:

• What were you thinking when you learned you had been traded to the Patriots?
• In your first season as a Patriot, it was evident in training camp that you developed a rapport with Tom Brady. Talent aside, what makes you two such a great tandem?
• Describe your relationship with Bill Belichick. How does he motivate you?
• What does the touchdown record mean to you?
• As a football player, how does Randy Moss in 1998 compare to Randy Moss in 2009?
• Taking into consideration that the team narrowly missed the playoffs last season and Tom Brady is back, what are your expectations for the 2009 season?
• Besides winning a championship, what do you want to accomplish in your career?
• Do you think, on paper, the 2009 Patriots are more talented than the 2007 team?
• For all your accomplishments, what are you most proud of?
• At age 32, are you showing any signs of slowing down? What will happen when you do, inevitably, slow down?
  
• What would your life be without football?
• How do you feel about the way you're portrayed in the media?
• Describe Randy Moss in three words.
  
• When your career is over, how do you want to be remembered?