Randy Moss ‘Had an Opportunity’ to Win a Super Bowl With Russell Wilson in Seattle
The idea of Randy Moss catching touchdowns from Russell Wilson will simply have to be something football fans do in Madden.
However, what is now just a video game feat could have been reality in the NFL. By the time Wilson debuted in 2012, Moss was on his final legs in the league and hoping to win a Super Bowl with the 49ers.
In a recent podcast appearance, Moss admitted he “had an opportunity” to join Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks in 2013. The reason Moss passed, though, left Wilson and listeners especially surprised.
Randy Moss is an NFL legend
Few will argue against Jerry Rice being the greatest receiver in NFL history.
Randy Moss, as the dust has settled, has settled into a top-3 spot alongside Rice and Terrell Owens. A six-time first-team All-Pro receiver, Moss turned 982 career catches into 15,292 yards and 156 touchdowns in 14 NFL seasons.
Eight of those seasons — well, seven and four games — came with the Minnesota Vikings, which used the 21st overall pick on Moss in 1998. Moss played in Minnesota from 1998-2004 and spent another four games with them in 2010, catching 587 passes for 9,316 yards and 92 touchdowns in purple and gold.
After two seasons in Oakland, Moss had an NFL-record 23 receiving touchdowns for the New England Patriots in 2007. Moss remained in New England through 2010.
New England cut Moss midway through the season. After that brief stint in Minnesota, Moss closed the first stage of his NFL career with six catches in eight games with the Tennessee Titans.
Moss also had 47 career playoff catches for 865 yards and 10 touchdowns in 12 playoff games across those 13 seasons.
Russell Wilson is among the league’s best players
Russell Wilson entered the NFL as a third-round pick from Wisconsin. Wilson is going to leave as a guaranteed Hall of Fame quarterback.
That isn’t an exaggeration. Wilson posted Hall of Fame-caliber numbers in his first eight seasons and opened the 2020 season in a similar fashion.
Wilson completed 82.5% of his passes in Seattle’s first two games, both wins, for 610 yards, nine touchdowns, and only one interception.
The six-time Pro Bowler also averaged 8.5 yards on his eight carries.
Randy Moss said he “had an opportunity” to win a ring in Seattle
After sitting out the 2011 season, Randy Moss returned to the NFL in 2012 and, like Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens before him, suited up for the San Francisco 49ers.
Moss caught 28 passes for 434 yards and three touchdowns in 16 games, drawing a start in two. He added seven catches for 112 yards in three postseason games.
Had Moss returned and played in 2013, he would have spent the entire year at age 36. Although Moss had looked slower in his lone year with the 49ers, no team would have needed him to be a No. 1 wideout the way he was in Minnesota or New England.
In an appearance on ESPN’s “Danger Talk,” Moss told Russell Wilson how he “had an opportunity” to sign with the Seahawks that year. Although Moss was interested, he said his own pride got in the way.
“I know I’m not physically ready. I did not want to let you guys down. . . . I knew, inside, from a physical standpoint, I wasn’t ready.”
Wilson didn’t exactly enjoy learning what could have been.
“My heart hurts,” Wilson said. “I wish somebody would have told me. We would’ve made this happen. . . . Now I’m going to have dreams of playing with Randy Moss.”
Seattle won the Super Bowl without Moss. It’s impossible to predict how effective Moss would have been in Seattle, but one thing is certain: Moss wouldn’t have looked as strange in a Seahawks uniform as he did in a Titans one.
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