Written By Sam Ekstrom (ZoneCoverage.com)
A legend was back in town Wednesday morning as Randy Moss spoke to the media after the announcement that the Minnesota Vikings were going to induct the former wide receiver into their Ring of Honor.
A reflective Moss spoke to the press for nearly 13 minutes and became emotional toward the end of the session when asked about the late Denny Green, who coached Moss from 1998-2001 and pushed for the team to draft him in 1998.
“I’d probably just fall in his arms and give him a hug, man,” Moss said tearfully. “There’s no words that I can tell him.”
The former Viking, who retired with the third-most receiving yards of all time, fell past 20 teams in the 1998 draft due to character concerns before being snatched up by Minnesota with Pick 21.
“I really don’t know why I was treated the way I was treated on draft day,” said Moss, “but Coach Green gave me an opportunity, and I told him, ‘Coach, you’re not going to regret this.’”
It’s safe to say he didn’t. Moss went on to catch 53 touchdowns in his four seasons under Green, who passed away July 21, 2016 due to complications from cardiac arrest.
“The man passed away without me really, really, really giving him my love and thanks for what he was able to do for me and my family,” Moss said. “There’s a lot of teams out there that passed on me for wrong reasons. Coach Green gave me that opportunity.”
Green was also a part of Moss’s fondest Minnesota memory: an iconic victory over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field his rookie season.
“If you know Coach Green you know he could play the drums,” said Moss. “He knew rhythm very good. So he’s up here playing the beat on the podium, so we never knew why he was playing that beat. When he started playing the beat he was basically telling Randall Cunningham, Randall McDaniel, the offense, Cris Carter and them, ‘This is the rhythm we’re going to have to play to the whole night in order for us to be successful.’
“The rest is history.”
