1/10/04--Moon over Green Bay

So yesterday, in amongst the time that I received the bad news about Misty, my Vikings went to Green Bay to play a playoff game.  The Vikes went into the game with a less than sterling 3-7 record over the last 10 games of the season, not unlike the season before when they...uh...pretty much did the same damn thing.
I was not confident.  They were playing the Packers, who they had lost to twice already this season, both by scores of 34-31 on the last play of the game (AARRGH!!).  Then you had the whole controversy from last weekend where Randy Moss decided to leave the playing field with 2 seconds left on the clock.

Well, in the immortal words of Gomer Pyle..."surprise, surprise, surprise!!"
Somehow head coach Mike Tice pulled a rabbit out of his hat and brought his team into Lambeau Field jacked up and ready to play.  The Vikes jumped out to a 17-0 lead, which is just about the point that I started thinking about the news I had just gotten and really turned the game off.  Well now, at some point, late in the game, with the score at 24-17, the Vikes made an impressive drive down the field towards the Green Bay goalline.  About 30 yds out, QB Duante Culpepper throws a deep pass for Randy Moss, who pulls it in for the touchdown that essentially ended the game and sent the Vikes on to the 2nd round of the playoffs.
Here's where it gets fun:  Moss, ever the petulant child, then goes over by the Green Bay goalpost and SIMULATES (key phrase) mooning the Packer faithful.  There have been some reports that he was wiping his behind on the goalpost, but I really didn't see any evidence of that.
Now, its at about this point in the broadcast that the FOX announcers (that's right--FOX--can you believe it?) to show their outrage to the viewing audience.  Play by play guy Joe Buck begins screaming about what a disgusting display it was by a thug WR (keep in mind this is the same Joe Buck who appears in the Budweiser commercials with egomaniacal football player "Leon"--but I digress).  The guys in the FOX studio, lead by Terry Bradshaw--you remember, the guy who reportedly couldn't spell C..A..T...if you spotted him the "C" and the "A"---begin screaming about the "sanctity of the NFL"   Again, this is the same Terry Bradshaw who up until 3 or 4 years ago wouldn't go to Pittsburgh for team events because he was still having a hissy about being booed by the fans during his career.  And HE'S going to tell Moss to grow up?  Uh....no thank you.  And then my personal favorite:


 Now I've heard everything...Dan Patrick was interviewing Mike Ditka & Michael Irvin about the Moss situation, Irvin actually said:
"No I wouldn't want Randy Moss for my teammate.
As great a player as he is on the field...I'd always have to be cleaning up his messes off the field."


EXCUSE ME??? Michael "COCAINE" Irvin is worrying about a teammate's reputation off the field?
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
This is the same guy who bought a house in Dallas next to the training facility in Dallas so he and his teammates could bang strippers after practice.
What an idiot. And he has the nerve to say that Moss "doesn't respect the NFL". I guess banging whores and snorting blow was part of the NFL's
"relaxed policy" when Irvin was playing.
And as far as respecting the NFL, I wonder if Iron Mike, total blowhard that he's always been,
thought he was respecting the NFL the 137th time the cameras caught him cursing at one of his players. Oh, I'm sorry--that was just his style.

Look....it was a pretty stupid gesture.  Was it "obscene"?  No.  First of all...it was a "SIMULATED" gesture.  He didn't actually drop trousers.  And of course, then there were the stories that came out AFTERWARDS about the "quaint" little custom that the fans of Lambeau have with the visiting teams that lose in Green Bay:  they wait by the dressing room of the opponents and then MOON the team bus to the losing team, showing the spoils of their "victory".  These are the "respectful" and proud fans of the NFL's penultimate franchise, the Green Bay Packers.  Loads of class, huh?  So...with that knowledge....Moss?  Stupid gesture.  The national outrage?  Way, WAAAAAY overblown.  A better question would have been:
"What in God's name is with Randy's hair?"  Holy cripes!  It was like Sly Stone was out there playing receiver for the Vikes.  And if it was Sly, whew....he was smoking Al Harris all day, wasn't he?
Later,
Jeff