Randy Moss, Terrell Owens or Hines Ward? Pick Any 2

Every Tuesday, we'll play a little game called Pick Any Two, where I offer you three horrible choices for a given topic and you'll have to pick not one but two of them, or simply discard one. This week, we're discussing impending wide receiver free agents in the NFL, and your choices are Terrell Owens, Randy Moss and Hines Ward. Off we go.

Randy Moss found real life in much the same way that NFL teams find Randy Moss, wholly undesirable. A seemingly impromptu Ustream campaign brought the name of the Marshall product back from the dead, where most of us had left it after a horrid 2010 season saw Moss catch only 28 balls with three different teams. Randy Moss hasn't been any less randy of late, lashing out at Cris Carter over Twitter with a #goodlukwithHOF hashtag to boot. Ouch.

Terrell Owens took a more traditional approach to reminding the football world that he was still alive. The former Niner, Eagle, Bill and Bengal sounded off to Nancy Hass in this month's GQ. Among the revelations in the piece was Owens' desire to continue his NFL career, which may or may not stem from the fact that he is reportedly broke. Owens will spend his spring suiting up for the Indoor Football League's franchise in Allen, Texas, which is about as far as one could fall after playing for the Bills and Bengals.

Hines Ward shouldn't be on this list. But he is. At this writing, he's not a free agent, but still remains on his hands and knees trying to dodge the waiver wire. In the wake of rumors surrounding his future as a Steeler, he announced that he would restructure his current contract, which has Ward scheduled for another $8 million over two more seasons. Finishing that deal means that Ward would retire in Pittsburgh in the only uniform he has ever worn in the NFL.

But really, Hines doesn't belong on this list. He never complains. He smiles. In fact, he smiles way too much. That persistent smiling is the only thing annoying about him, except for maybe his uninspired run downfield in his cameo in The Dark Knight Rises. But Ward shares a common plight with Moss and Owens: uncertainty.   

Old wide receivers present their issues. Most NFL teams need their fourth and fifth wide receivers to play special teams, grunt work that veterans aren't often willing or able to perform. And roster spots are precious. NFL teams don't have the options that an MLB team might, keeping a big bat on the bench for the occasional pinch-hit appearance. Pro football's list of 53 players is a chain, one without the luxury of sporting weak links.

And NFL teams have better ways to spend their money at wide receiver. Depending on how the franchise tags shake out, DeSean Jackson, Dwayne Bowe, Wes Welker and Marques Colston could all be free agents this season. All of those players are proven assets with significant mileage remaining on their respective careers. And with the exception of Jackson, none of them have proven to be liabilities in the locker room.

We see lots of players get second chances in the NFL. We rarely see guys get a third. And yet Moss and Owens did. The former seemed to have finally learned how to be quiet in New England, but when the promise of a new contract didn't come, it was the Same Old Moss that rolled out of Foxborough, and then Minneapolis.

As for Owens, if there was a sadder sight than watching him at his first Buffalo Bills press conference, it requires its own segment on "Turning Point." And yet, few felt that such misery wasn't deserved, or even self-imposed.

Some wide receivers exit the league in more entertaining way than others. Keyshawn Johnson was on live television at the NFL Draft when his Carolina Panthers drafted Dwayne Jarrett out of Southern Cal, who would eventually take Key's place on the roster. Marvin Harrison was ominously unsigned after rumors swirled around his alleged involvement in a 2008 shooting. James Lofton spent his last eight years in the league with five different teams. Jerry Rice played 17 games in his last year in the league, 2004, after being traded from Oakland to Seattle (Rice was not on either roster when those teams hit their respective bye weeks).

Ward is a good guy, but will that be enough to get him a roster spot? Of these three receivers, Hines' potential contributions might actually be the least viable. If Moss can still stretch the defense and Owens can still cut on that surgically-repaired knee, the skills of the 35-year-old over a scrub rookie could be negligible. Hines currently sits on 1,000 career receptions. Owens sits at second place on the NFL's all-time receptions list, with Moss just three places behind him. There's a great chance that none of them will play in 2012.

It wouldn't hurt their careers or their respective legacies if this was the end of the road for them, but it seems unfortunate that Ward could be thrust into a common limbo with two other guys who didn't show the game the same respect that he did.

Being a jerk has a better chance of keeping a guy off a roster than talent has of keeping him on it. One could only hope that the likes of DeSean Jackson, Santonio Holmes and Michael Crabtree could heed those lessons. Or that they don't. Seeing how those unique talents flame out of the league could be just as delightful as watching them play.