1. Randy Gene Moss was born on February 13,1977 and is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League for 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans, and San Francisco 49ers.
Randy Moss played college football for the Marshall Thundering Herd and earned Unanimous All-American honors in 1997.
Randy Moss was traded in 2005 to the Oakland Raiders, where he experienced a slump in play, notably due to the lack of talent surrounding him and perceived decline.
In 2007, Randy Moss was then traded to the New England Patriots, where he experienced a career resurgence and set the single-season record for total touchdown receptions.
In October 2010, Randy Moss returned to the Vikings in a trade from the Patriots but was waived less than a month later and then claimed by the Tennessee Titans.
Randy Moss played in two Super Bowl games, XLII with the Patriots and XLVII with the 49ers, both losses.
Randy Moss was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018, and is a member of the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Randy Moss attended DuPont High School, one of two schools that later consolidated into Riverside High School, where he excelled in football, basketball, baseball, and track.
Randy Moss was a star at wide receiver, but played free safety, returned kickoffs and punts, and was the team's kicker and punter.
Randy Moss's dream was to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but he considered going to Ohio State, where his half-brother, Eric, had played offensive tackle.
On March 23,1995, Moss had backed a friend in a hallway fight against a white student who had allegedly used racist comments towards Randy's friend.
Randy Moss was initially charged with a felony for kicking the student, but it was later reduced to a misdemeanor.
Randy Moss served 3 days in jail starting that night and would be required to serve the remaining 27 days within the following 18 months, after he completed his freshman year in college.
Randy Moss was expelled from DuPont and completed his education at Cabell Alternative School.
In 1996, while serving his 30-day jail sentence in a work-release program from 1995, Randy Moss tested positive for marijuana, thus violating his probation, and was dismissed from Florida State.
Randy Moss served an additional 60 days in jail for the probation violation.
Ultimately, Randy Moss transferred to Marshall University, about an hour's drive from his home.
Randy Moss was the leading kickoff returner in Division I-AA on the season, with 612 total yards and a 34.0-yard average.
The 1996 Marshall Thundering Herd went undefeated and won the Division I-AA title, with Randy Moss having four touchdown receptions in the 1996 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game against Montana.
At the Southern Conference indoor track championships, Randy Moss ran the 200 meters in 21.15 seconds, missing the conference record by only.
Randy Moss caught 26 touchdown passes that season, at the time a Division I-A record, and was a first-team All-American.
The second game of the season saw Randy Moss pick up right where he left off in 1996.
Randy Moss finished the game with six receptions for 173 yards.
Randy Moss finished his career at Marshall having scored at least one touchdown in all 28 games that he played.
Randy Moss won the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the season's outstanding receiver regardless of position, and was a finalist for the 1997 Heisman Trophy, finishing fourth in the balloting.
Randy Moss was a Consensus All-American and won MAC Offensive Player of the Year.
Randy Moss later claimed that the quotes were taken out of context.
Randy Moss skipped his junior and senior seasons at Marshall and entered the NFL Draft.
Randy Moss did not attend the NFL Combine, opting instead for an individual workout at Marshall's pro day.
Randy Moss grew up a Cowboys fan and wanted to play for the Cowboys.
Randy Moss felt that the Cowboys lied to him because they had told him they would draft him.
In 1998, Randy Moss helped the Vikings to become the number 1 rated offense ever at the time, setting the single-season record for scoring with 556 points.
Randy Moss had five receptions for 190 yards and two touchdowns, including touchdown receptions of 52 yards and 44 yards, and two other receptions of 46 yards and 41 yards.
Randy Moss had a 75-yard touchdown catch on the Vikings' first possession of the game that was nullified due to an offensive holding penalty.
Randy Moss earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his game against Green Bay.
Randy Moss was the first rookie to score three touchdowns on Thanksgiving.
Randy Moss caught a pass for a 2-point conversion, AND picked up 50 yards on a defensive pass-interference penalty on Dallas.
Randy Moss had six receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown in the loss.
Randy Moss was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team for 1998.
Randy Moss earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his game verses the Bears.
Randy Moss was fined $40,000, which was later reduced to $25,000, during that game due to squirting an NFL referee with a water bottle.
Randy Moss earned his second straight Pro Bowl appearance, and turned in a record-breaking performance.
Randy Moss had nine receptions for a Pro Bowl record 212 yards and was given the game's Most Valuable Player award.
Randy Moss had been selected largely due to his extremely strong arm, which the team believed was perfectly suited for Moss's deep routes.
Randy Moss finished the season with a career-high 1,437 yards and league-leading 15 touchdown receptions.
Randy Moss was held to two receptions for 18 yards in the game.
Randy Moss was scheduled to earn $3.5 million in 2001.
However, Randy Moss, who was entering the final year of the rookie contract he signed in 1998, was seeking a long-term deal that would make him the highest-paid player in the NFL.
An assistant coach would stand on the sidelines during games and track how many times Randy Moss had been thrown to, and then inform Tice of the percentages so that he is always aware of it.
Coach Tice discussed the strategy, explaining that Randy Moss would be running more short and intermediate routes and fewer deep patterns.
In training camp, Randy Moss worked specifically on 12 new routes that he had rarely run in his first four NFL seasons, such as crossing patterns over the middle of the field and hook routes.
The Randy Moss Ratio did not last very long, as Tice scrapped the idea midway through the 2002 season.
Randy Moss had seven games with least 100 receiving yards on the year.
Randy Moss's fortunes took a better turn on the football field during the 2003 regular season, where he became the second wide receiver in NFL history to play more than 12 games while averaging over 100 yards and one touchdown per contest.
Randy Moss played in Week 7 against the Tennessee Titans, but had no receptions in a game for the first time in his career.
Randy Moss played the following week against the New York Giants, but again recorded no receptions and was used mainly as a decoy.
Randy Moss returned to the lineup in Week 12 with a touchdown catch against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Randy Moss closed out the regular season with consecutive games going over the 100-yard mark with a touchdown in Weeks 14 and 15 against the Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions.
On March 2,2005, Randy Moss was traded to the Oakland Raiders for linebacker Napoleon Harris and the Raiders' first and seventh-round picks in the 2005 NFL Draft.
Randy Moss surpassed the 1,000 mark on the final day of the 2005 season with seven receptions for 116 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns against the New York Giants.
Randy Moss recorded 553 yards and three touchdowns on 42 receptions in 2006.
Randy Moss was not happy in Oakland, and on November 14,2006, when he was honored as a kick returner by having a college football award named after him, he responded to questions about his dropped passes and lackluster effort in several games.
Packers quarterback Brett Favre, who once said, "There is no one in this league who puts fear in people more than Randy Moss," tried to persuade team management to trade for him, but a deal that both sides could agree to did not get done.
One of the conditions of the trade was that Randy Moss would have to restructure his contract for salary cap reasons.
Just hours before the Randy Moss trade was completed, New England quarterback Tom Brady converted $5.28 million of his 2007 base salary into a signing bonus that was spread out over the remaining portion of his contract so that it could free up cap room.
Randy Moss had two years remaining on his current deal and was scheduled to earn $9.75 million in 2007 and $11.25 million in 2008.
Randy Moss quickly quieted critics who claimed that his skills had deteriorated by hauling in nine receptions for 181 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown reception in which he ran past three Jets defenders.
Randy Moss followed up the Jets game with three consecutive games, wins over the San Diego Chargers, Buffalo Bills, and Cincinnati Bengals, going over the 100-yard mark with two receiving touchdowns in each.
Randy Moss earned AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his game against the Colts.
Randy Moss earned AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his game against the Bills.
Randy Moss caught two touchdown passes for a total of 23, breaking the single-season record of 22 touchdown receptions previously set by Jerry Rice.
Randy Moss recorded 98 catches for 1,493 yards in 2007, the highest yardage total in Patriots franchise history and the third-highest total number of catches, after teammate Wes Welker's 112 catches that same season and Troy Brown's 101 in 2001.
Randy Moss earned his sixth Pro Bowl selection and fourth first team All-Pro nomination.
On February 28,2008, Randy Moss became a free agent after the Patriots decided not to place the franchise tag on Randy Moss.
In 2008, Randy Moss hauled in 69 catches for 1,008 yards and 11 touchdowns despite losing quarterback Tom Brady in the first game of the season.
In Week 5 against the Denver Broncos, Randy Moss was placed deep in coverage on a Broncos Hail Mary attempt to end the first half, and intercepted Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton.
Randy Moss said Moss not only knows what he's doing on a play, but what everybody else on the field is doing as well.
Randy Moss finished the season with 83 receptions for 1,264 receiving yards and 13 receiving touchdowns.
Randy Moss's 13 receiving touchdowns tied for the league lead.
Randy Moss was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-2000s first team.
Randy Moss went on to catch five passes for 59 yards in Week 1.
The Boston Herald reported weeks later that Randy Moss requested a trade following the game.
Randy Moss had two receptions in Week 2 against the New York Jets, including a 34-yard touchdown that he caught one-handed after All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis pulled a hamstring.
Two days after the Patriots' game against Miami, Randy Moss was traded to the Minnesota Vikings, in exchange for the Vikings' third-round selection in the 2011 NFL draft.
Just before the press conference, Randy Moss reportedly told team owner Zygi Wilf that Childress was unfit to coach in the NFL and should be fired.
Randy Moss was claimed off waivers by the Tennessee Titans, the only team to submit a claim, on November 3,2010.
Randy Moss made six catches for 80 yards and no touchdowns.
Randy Moss finished the 2010 season with career lows in receptions and receiving yards.
On February 13,2012, his 35th birthday, Randy Moss announced that he was coming out of retirement and was ready to play again.
On March 12,2012, Randy Moss signed a one-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers for undisclosed financial terms after a workout with the team's head coach Jim Harbaugh.
On September 9,2012, Randy Moss caught his 154th touchdown reception, and subsequently passed Terrell Owens for sole possession of second on the all-time receiving touchdown list.
Randy Moss finished the season with 28 catches for 434 yards and three touchdowns.
Randy Moss has participated in, founded, and financed many charitable endeavors since joining the NFL, particularly aimed at helping children.
Randy Moss has bussed children to amusement parks, NBA games, and even NFL games in which he has played.
In 2008, Randy Moss formed the Links for Learning foundation, which was established to help children in his home state of West Virginia, and to build learning centers for the most needy student populations.
In March 2009, Randy Moss's foundation made a donation that enabled the Women and Children's Hospital of Charleston, West Virginia to purchase a Starlight Children's Foundation 'Fun Center' for their patients.
In July 2008, Randy Moss announced that he had bought a 50 percent share in Morgan-Dollar Motorsports, with the team's No 46 entry switching to No 81.
Randy Moss was hired as an associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Victory Christian Center High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, in June 2014, where his son was attending high school and playing football.
In July 2016, Randy Moss joined ESPN as an analyst, appearing on Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown.
Randy Moss was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
In 2019, Randy Moss was named to the National Football League 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Randy Moss has a sister named Lutisia and had a brother Eric, who had a short stint in the NFL as an offensive tackle with the Minnesota Vikings.
Randy Moss is a Christian, attested by his NFL Hall of Fame speech.
In December 2024, Randy Moss announced that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown to address an "internal" and unspecified health issue.
Randy Moss directed his message to men and urged them to get checkups and bloodwork done, without specifying any particular illness.
On September 24,2002, in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, Randy Moss was driving and was preparing to make an illegal turn.
Eyewitness accounts of the event differ at this point, but Randy Moss did not comply with the officer's order, and she was bumped by his vehicle and fell to the ground.
Randy Moss was arrested, and a search of his vehicle revealed a joint amounting to less than a gram of marijuana in his ashtray.
Randy Moss pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor traffic violation and was ordered to pay a $1,200 fine and perform 40 hours of community service.
Randy Moss claimed that the joint was not his, and that he had let friends use his car prior to the accident.
Randy Moss was scheduled to finish the remainder of his 30-day sentence for misdemeanor battery while in high school.
Randy Moss was placed in solitary confinement for a week and had 60 days attached to his 27-day sentence.
Coach Bobby Bowden revoked his scholarship and Randy Moss was dismissed from Florida State University for the failed drug test.
Randy Moss tested positive in 2001 for marijuana under the NFL's substance abuse program and was subject to additional random drug screening for two years.
Randy Moss did not fail an NFL drug test again, and was rotated out of the program after two years.
On January 15,2008, Orlando-based radio station WDBO reported that Randy Moss "had" been hit with a temporary injunction for protection against dating violence.
The affidavit out of Broward County reveals Randy Moss cannot come within 500 feet of the victim and cannot use or possess firearms.