Randy Moss gave Patriots fans one last bizarre press conference to remember him by.
After a deeply disappointing return to Foxborough where he caught only one pass for eight yards, Moss showed up unannounced at the podium wearing a Red Sox hat and went off for five rambling minutes. Some highlights:
1. He called Bill Belichick the greatest coach in the history of the NFL.
2. Fined $25,000 this week for not cooperating with the media, Moss said he will not answer any more questions the rest of the year. He said he will ask and answer his own questions exclusively. (Tonight’s question was: “What’s on your mind, Randy?”)
3. Moss constantly repeated how much he misses the Patriots. “I just want to be able to tell the guys (in NE) I miss the hell out of them,” Moss said.
4. While the Patriots have the greatest coach of all time, the Vikings have Brad Childress. Moss criticized Brad Childress for going for it on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line at the end of the first half. The Patriots stuffed Adrian Peterson.
“I’m definitely down we lost this game. . . . Wish could have had 3 at end of the half. Maybe it could have been different. Maybe not,” Moss said.
5. Moss said the ovation from Patriots fans at the end of the game brought a tear to his eye.
6. The weirdest part of the press conference was when Moss vaguely said that the Vikings didn’t take advantage of the extra information he gave his new team.
“I tried to prepare,” Moss said. “I tried to talk to the players and coaches about how this game was going to be played and a couple tendencies here, couple tendencies here. The bad part about it -- you have six days to prepare for a team, and on the seventh day, that Sunday, meaning today, I guess they come over to me and say, ‘Dag, Moss, you was right about a couple plays and a couple schemes they were going to run.’
“It hurts as a player that you put a lot of hard work in all week, and toward the end of the week, Sunday, when you get on the field, that’s when they acknowledge about the hard work you put in throughout the week. That’s actually a disappointment.”
The whole thing sounded like Moss applying for a job with New England next year. We think the Patriots are quite content without him.
UPDATE: A snippet of the fun:
“I don’t know how many more times I’m going to be up here in New England,” Moss concluded. “But I’m going to leave the New England Patriots, Coach Belichick, man, with a salute, man. I love you guys, I miss you, I’m out.”
UPDATE: Here’s the complete transcript, via 1500espn.com.