Let’s take a hack at the most asked question I’ve had since Sunday morning: What do you think about the Randy Moss acquistion?
Here’s a link to the original column that ran in our Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co. papers on Monday. While my theme hasn’t changed three days later | I believe Moss makes the Patriots the favorites to win in 2008 with an exclamation point | I am struck by how many people are railing the Patriots for relenting on the “character” issue.
Where have these people been? Didn’t we go through this with Corey Dillon three years ago, for a second round pick?
I’m not going to say he was my personal favorite for an interview, but he was a major success. He arrived, just like Moss is, coming off the worst season of his career and many stories of his being a team-killer in the locker room.
What Bill Belichick has done, to his credit, is make the Patriots franchise bigger than any individual. That was not the case when Drew Bledsoe was here, especially during the Pete Carroll Era. Bledsoe was always bigger than the team.
That’s not the case anymore. Just like the Yankees, you either follow the program or you are gone. And it seems every guy the Yankees bring in follows their program.
Well, Dillon was the blueprint. A Hall of Fame talent who was stewing because of the losing the and blame always going his way. Ditto for Moss.
Three years, 3,100 yards, 39 touchdowns and one Vince Lombardi trophy later, can everyone admit the gamble paid off?
Moss also comes here, finally, as a “second fiddle.” Sure, we’ll do stories, as will the national media, but he won’t be the story. We know the top two targets there are No. 12 and the mad genius on the sidelines.
I am close to getting ahold of Moss’ best friend, who would be able to elaborate a lot on what happened and why this union has been consummated. Stay tuned there.
In closing, this is a no-brainer. Moss has had issues, but the odds are great they won’t happen here. There is too much structure in place and Moss has too much to lose here.
Sure, it could get interesting around his locker after a game if Brady spreads the ball around to 11 different receivers and Moss is mostly used as a decoy, but the guess is here he will be Brady’s favorite target.
Another thing to remember is Brady has signed off on this. He had his contract adjusted so the trade could be made (under Moss’ old contract at $9.75 million for 2007, which has since been reduced to about $3.2 million, not including reachable incentives).
Do you think Brady wants to risk everything if Moss was a big gamble? I didn’t think so either.
