Baltimore Ravens v New England Patriots - Wild Card Round

Randy Moss has all but given up in New England.  Leading up to what will be his fourth season with the Patriots, Randy Moss doesn’t think he’ll be a Patriot after his contract runs out after the 2010 season.

Randy Moss is essentially quiting, again, on a team that has given him a chance to prove that he is one of the best receivers in NFL history — tell me you didn’t see this coming.  The Patriots took a gamble on the problem player, a player who proved in Oakland that he doesn’t play for the team, he plays for himself.  People bought into the hype that he would become a team player in New England.  They believed that if anyone could keep Randy Moss in line, the immortal Bill Belichick could.  Because as we all know, Bill Belichick is the greatest coach in NFL history.  He’s a defensive genius and demands respect from his players, and became one of the founders of the “Patriot Way.”  He has three rings after all, so by default he has to be great right?

The fact remains that Randy Moss plays for no one but Randy Moss.  Randy Moss only plays when Randy Moss wants to.

If Randy Moss really cares about his legacy, then someone close to him needs to tell him to shut his mouth and just go play football for once.  He did this so well for two seasons, one that featured him breaking Jerry Rice’s single season receiving touchdown record and the Patriots falling just short of a perfect season, and the other dealing with the loss of Tom Brady for the season with a torn MCL and ACL in the season opener.  Clearly the Randy Moss we saw during those two seasons was a facade.  The old Randy Moss we have come to hate and villainize has returned:

‘I don’t think they going to extend my contract here,” Moss said, per Christopher L. Gasper of the Boston Globe.  “I understand the beast, the nature of it.  I think that just with what I think and what I know I don’t think they’re going to re-sign me back.  So, after this season if there is not a lockout I’ll be looking for a new team.  I got a lot of respect for the Patriots and what they did for me and my family.  So, the only thing I can do is just play this year out and see what my future holds after that. “

Horrible grammar aside, it appears to me that Randy Moss is jumping the gun a bit with the woe is me, the Patriots don’t want me anymore mentality.  Let me hit you with a little knowledge Randy, you’re in contract season, you should be proving to the Patriots on the football field why they need to keep you, not convincing them through the media of all the reasons why you’ve earned such a bad rap over the years.  Flapping your gums to reporters that you don’t think the Patriots are going to “re-sign you back” before your agent even attempts work on contract negotiations is a bit premature don’t you think?

Obviously his last comment in that quote is exactly what he needs to do to earn a new contract with the Patriots.  However, making the claim that you already know that they won’t re-sign you is just stupid.  The perception is now that Moss knows he’s playing for a team who doesn’t want him anymore, so chances are he’ll dog it all season, just like he did against the Panthers this past season.

Given his history of selfishness, there’s no team out there — aside from the Cowboys and Redskins — who are going to spend top dollar on a guy with a proven history of playing when he wants to play.  This is one and only reason why I have always believed T.O. is a better receiver than Randy Moss.  Both guys are selfish prima donnas, but at least Owens showed up every Sunday and played his butt off, no matter what team he was playing with.  Randy Moss has never done that.  When the times get tough, he folds.

“You know the Patriots don’t really pay, so when I got my second contract from them that was a blessing in disguise.  I understand the business.  I don’t think they’re going to re-sign me back.  I’m not mad.  I’m not bitter.  It’s just the way things are in this NFL, so like I said after this year I’ll be looking for a new team.  I think so. . . .

“That’s not a knock on them.  That’s just how they run their organization,”  Moss added.  “That’s how it is.  Put it like this, I guess that before I came there the philosophy was believing in their system. I think that’s where they really don’t pay guys because they have so much faith in their system. I didn’t mean it as a knock against the organization.  They just don’t pay.  If as an individual I’m not really in their future plans I would like to go elsewhere.”

Yeah, I’m certain they’re convinced they don’t want you back now.  Insulting the franchise now are we?  Awesome.  It’s clear now that Randy Moss never cared about this team, or any other team he has ever played on.  All he wanted was to get paid.  Clearly he chose the wrong team for that.

He is right about one thing, the Patriots don’t pay.  They don’t pay because Belichick likes bringing in self-centered guys like Randy Moss selling them on the notion that they will win a championship and apparently that’s music to these player’s ears.  After the initial honeymoon is over and Belichick’s schtick begins to wear on them, these players start reverting back to who they really are, thus situations like this.  This is why the Patriots franchise doesn’t pay people.  Belichick knows it’s only a matter of time before these guys become unhappy, essentially getting the best out of them and dump them on the side of the street like one of Tiger Woods’ many flings.  That’s the “Patriot Way,” and that’s why players like Asante Samuel and Richard Seymour and happy to be out of there, even if that means playing for the Oakland Raiders.

There’s a reason why the Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl since 2004.  The core of the team, the real champions, are gone.  And now Belichick is struggling to throw together a team in hopes to continue the success he experienced in the past, only to fall short because he doesn’t have a great team anymore.  Randy Moss is a sucker just like every other free agent Belichick has lured in to New England.  They fell for the “system” gimmick and realized after they got there that there is no system.  The reason Belichick had success early in his career as the Patriots coach is because he cheated and had great players, his system had nothing to do with it.  Belichick, much like Randy Moss, is a fraud.

The Patriots may be the team of the decade, but that team and the Patriot Way, along with Randy Moss’ career, is dead.