Randy Moss Trade Has a Familiar Ring For New England Patriots

We’ve seen this before in New England. A young, scrappy team looking for an identity. A dynamically talented malcontent receiver. A decision: cut bait and move on. Initial feelings of apprehension. Yeah, we know the guy was a troublemaker, but, seriously, how can this offense succeed without its biggest threat?

And all we get is a third round pick in return? No players to help us this season? An offensive lineman maybe? A pass rusher? We could use a veteran cornerback.

It has to make you wonder. Are the Pats packing it in for the season, building for the future?

That’s exactly how it went down in New England- in 2001. The early days of the Belichick regime. Tom Brady had just taken over at quarterback for injured Drew Bledsoe. The Patriots offense looked positively anemic at the time, with the exception of speed demon wide receiver Terry Glenn. Problem is, Glenn was a moaner. He was fragile, physically and emotionally. In 2001 he wanted a new contract. He intimated that he was giving less than full effort, and perhaps missing time with phantom injuries, because his contract situation was unresolved.

That was the final straw. Belichick took the rare step of deactivating his best player for the rest of the season. Not trading. Deactivating.

This, remember, was before we all knew that Belichick was Belichick. Who the hell was this guy? Doesn’t he know you need good players to win?

The season looked hopeless.

And then, the young, scrappy team found its identity- as exactly that- a team. The rise of Brady. The wholly unexpected playoff berth. The tuck-rule. The Bledsoe reprise in the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh. Bruschi. Troy Brown. And, then, finally, the Super Bowl in New Orleans where the Patriots chose to be introduced as a team and where- as a team- they shocked the world and the St. Louis Rams, winning the first of three Super Bowl championships.

A lot of things happened along the road to that moment. But it all started within a matter of weeks, early in the season, with arrival of one man, Tom Brady, and the forced departure of another, Terry Glenn.

Six years and those three championships later they brought in Randy Moss. The ghost of Terry Glenn, you might call it, though Moss was even more talented. The feeling was that veteran leadership and the established credibility of three Lombardi Trophies could be keep Moss in line. Keep his selfish impulse in check. And it worked- for a while. Some records were broken. They went to another Super Bowl. But they didn’t win it. In fact, they haven’t won a championship now in six years. The veteran leaders, aside from Brady, are long gone. This year’s collection of players looks a lot more like the 2001 Pats than the 2007 edition.

And recently, as it always happens, things turned sour with Moss. While Tom Brady and Wes Welker and Danny Woodhead and Patrick Chung were reminding the world what New England Patriot football is supposed to look like, Moss couldn’t find it within himself to be happy for his teammates. He was pissed off that he hadn’t caught a pass. That he’d been targeted only once.

Enough. They shipped him out.

This time we get it. Or at least we should.

Belichick is Belichick.

Moss is Moss.

And the Patriots-once again- are starting to look like a team.

-Chris Marakovitz

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