National Football League

Moss' mouth too much for Vikings

Published Oct. 31, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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It looks like the Vikings have quickly grown tired of Randy Moss. The wide receiver will be waived.

Minnesota acquired Moss from the New England Patriots for a third-round pick on Oct. 6. In four games, he caught 13 passes for 174 yards and two touchdown passes. He was set to become a free agent at the end of the season, but now he must clear waivers before he can sign with any team.

NFL Network first reported that Moss was to be waived.

It appeared on Sunday that Moss hadn’t come to terms with divorce from the Patriots. The volatile wide receiver marked his return to Foxborough on Sunday with a bizarre post-game rant that roundly criticized his current coach, Brad Childress, and praised former boss Bill Belichick as the greatest coach in the history of the NFL.

“Coach Belichick gave me an opportunity to be a part of something special and that is something I really take to heart. I actually salute Coach Belichick and his team for the success that they have had before me, during me and after me,” Moss said.

Moss is still owed about $3.4 million in the final year of his current contract, which a team must assume if it claims him off waivers.

Even more bizarre – during a five-minute speech following the Patriots’ 28-18 victory over the visiting Vikings that saw Brett Favre leave with a chin laceration, Moss told reporters he no longer will field questions from them after the NFL fined him $25,000 in Week 8 for not cooperating with the media.

Instead, Moss said he will now ask his own questions and answer them. Exclusively.

“Well, I am going to go ahead and start this thing off. I am going to go ahead and say this – I said this a couple of weeks ago – but I got fined $25,000 for not talking to you all. Me, personally, I really don’t care, but at the same time, I do answer questions throughout the week, and for the league to fine me $25,000 … I am not going to answer any more questions for the rest of this year,” Moss said.

“If it is going to be an interview, I am going to conduct it. So, I will answer my own questions and ask myself the questions and give you the answers. So from here on out, I am not answering any more questions the rest of this season.”

As for Childress, Moss took exception to the Vikings’ coaching staff not heeding his advice on how to handle the Patriots’ explosive offense.

“Like I said, it has been an emotional roller-coaster this whole week. I tried to prepare; tried to talk to the coaches and players about how this game was going to be played – a couple tendencies here and a couple tendencies there,” Moss said.

“But the bad part about it, you have six days to prepare for a team and on the seventh day, that’s Sunday, meaning today, I guess they come over to me and say, ‘Dang Moss, you were right about a couple plays and a couple schemes that 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 is when they acknowledge the hard work you have put in all week. So that is a disappointment.”

Moss also was disappointed to see his Vikings thwarted on a fourth-and-goal try from one yard out at the end of the first half. New England stopped Adrian Peterson for a two-yard loss and Moss pined for a field goal try instead.

“I wish we could have had that three at the end of the half,” he said. “Maybe it could have been different, maybe not.”

And what about his former team? Moss spoke about how much he missed his Patriots teammates.

“The captains, (Vince) Wilfork, (Tom Brady), (Jerod) Mayo, Kevin Faulk, I miss those guys. I miss the team. It was hard for me to come here and play. It has been an up-and-down roller-coaster emotionally all week,” Moss said. “Then to be able to come in here and see those guys and running plays that I know what they’re doing.

“The success they had on the field — the running game — so I kind of know what type of feeling they have in their locker room and I just want to be able to tell the guys that I miss the hell out of them, every last helmet in that locker room.”

At the end, Moss delivered a salute to his former team.

“I don’t know how many more times I am going to be up here in New England,” Moss said, “but I am going to leave the New England Patriots and Coach Belichick here with a salute. I love you guys. I miss you. I’m out.”

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