By Matt Sohn
Jan. 16, 2008

Patriots WR Randy Moss

Randy Moss could’ve treated the question like a helpless cornerback by simply evading it. He could’ve inundated the nation’s newspapers with tired clichés by deadpanning the company-line. Instead, Moss indulged a room full of reporters with the unfiltered truth when asked how it felt to set the single-season touchdown reception record.

“I don’t think me breaking Jerry Rice’s record is special,” Moss said. “I think shutting you guys up is what made it special. All the negativity, all the critics.”

It was just moments after the Patriots topped the Giants at the Meadowlands in a victory that yielded a trio of league firsts: (1) The Patriots became the first team to finish a perfect 16-0 in the regular season. (2) Tom Brady allowed Peyton Manning’s season-record of 49 touchdown passes to stand for just three years by tossing an even 50. (3) Moss, who just a year earlier was stuck in the football purgatory of Oakland, Calif., had cemented his name in league annals by snagging an unprecedented 23 TD catches, besting Rice’s record by one.

Forgive Moss for having an axe to grind. Before packing his bags for Foxborough, Mass., on draft weekend 2007, he had spent the previous two years as the poster boy for the Raiders’ ineptitude. Chastised by the media and fans alike for being a clubhouse distraction and dogging it on the field, he had regressed from revolutionary talent to perpetual punch line — that is, when he wasn’t forgotten about altogether. His totals of 102 catches for 1,558 yards and 11 touchdowns in his two-season stint donning the Silver and Black are more pedestrian than woeful, but the 42-catch, 553-yard, three-touchdown dud he delivered in the second half of his stay by the bay solidified the notion that the Raiders got the raw end of the ’05 blockbuster trade with the Vikings.

When Raiders owner Al Davis hired Lane Kiffin to clean up Art Shell’s mess, trading away the once-prized receiver emerged as part of his restoration project. With just a fourth-round draft pick the price, the Patriots were happy to consummate the deal.

“We did not have any trepidation in terms of making the trade,” Patriots V.P. of player personnel Scott Pioli said.

Rejuvenated by playing for the NFL’s model franchise, Moss took to New England like a clam to chowder.

“From the moment that Randy arrived here — the offseason program, the workouts — he’s been what we expected,” Pioli said. “He’s a tremendous professional, and our players respect that.”

Although still recovering from a strained hamstring that sidelined him through the preseason, Moss proved in the season opener that his label of a “has been” was a thing of the past. Just as he would do 17 weeks later, Moss treated Giants Stadium as his personal playground, grabbing nine balls for 183 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown, against the Jets.

His record-breaking campaign was littered with similar outings, but just as important was his enabling the Patriots’ other receivers to emerge. With coverage routinely rolling to his side of the field — perhaps most glaringly against the Browns and Eagles — Wes Welker, Donté Stallworth and Jabar Gaffney took turns being the beneficiary of defenses’ unbalanced schemes.

Unlike his tenure in Oakland, when mere glimpses of his ability were in short supply, it has gotten to the point in New England where Moss’ highlight-reel performances induce little more than a shoulder shrug from those constantly around him. A day after the Patriots’ Week Nine victory over the Colts, media members were still in awe of a sensational, fully extended, one-handed grab by Moss. Then coach Bill Belichick exposed the harsh reality.

“Standing out here at practice, anybody will tell you that’s not the first one,” Belichick said. “It’s not the 10th one. Honestly, he does that on a pretty regular basis.”

As for winning the Pro Football Weekly/Pro Football Writers of America Comeback Player of the Year award, well, that is a first for Moss. Congratulations, Randy. We’ll shut up now.

All-time winners

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Links to 2007 PFW/PFWA awards