“Now is the winter of our discontent”
The opening words of Bill Shakespeare’s play “Richard lll” might well be the same verbage opined by the once New England malignant Moss-man as in Randy, who’s now currently (temporarily?) employed by the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, the look on the collective faces of the media attending to Randy’s post-game diatribe after he dropped some Shakespeare on them would’ve been priceless.
Certainly when Randy Moss took the podium back in September after the Patriots season opening win to pontificate his unhappiness at getting slapped in the face after not being offered a contract this season was poor and ill-advised timing. Kind’a like some of the routes Randy runs when he’s grumped out.
The look on Wes Welker’s face as he stood by the podium in the video footage provided by media, and waited for Randy to finish, (which included Wes going away for awhile and then coming back) seemed to say even back then that the discontent was already bubbling over.
Where divisiveness begins to appear is in the locker room. In the factions that start to develop. Some guys say, “Hey, give the man his money.” Others, who like myself when the press starts to pester you about a teammate barking in public, tend to get irritated over having to deal with another man’s problems who takes them outside the locker room. It creates a division amongst fellas that don’t need any extra diversions over the course of a long, long season.
But the fact of the matter is that Randy Moss is a dangerous wide receiver when he has a chip on his shoulder. When Randy feels that he’s being dissed, he comes to play. And as New York Jets All-World CB Darrelle Revis can attest, the man can still get it done at a high level.
I know Minne Vikes Head Coach Brad Childress to be a fine man from personal experience, and he has bet the “Farve-m” on this one. After coercing the Hattiesburg home-run-hitter Brett Favre into coming out of hibernation, Childress found out that without someone to rip the top off’a coverage schemes, Percy Harvin was no Wes Welker, headaches or not. And Favre, who has long wished to teammate up with Moss, needed some extra juice which a something-to-prove Moss can provide.
Simply put, Childress had to make the deal. With Sidney Rice and a 3-0 start, “a rolling stone gathers no moss” accurately describes Brad’s situation. There would never be a return of the Moss-man if Rice was healthy. Moss will not grow on a piece of rock which is moving, and if the Vikes were “on a roll,” I doubt Brad would have made this reach. But a stagnant 1-2 start in Brett’s “last year” made this a must deal.
It makes sense, especially after Vincent Jackson seems to be going nowhere in a hurry. The question now becomes will Ziggy Wolf ante up enough to placate Moss?
I guess we’ll see. I spent a coupl’a seasons in Minnesota at the end of my career. It’s a l-o-n-g, cold winter there.
