Randy Moss didn’t talk to reporters during training camp, but he had a press agent in Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Tice.
“Randy Moss will have the best season he ever has had this year, without a doubt, and so will Daunte,” Tice said before camp broke this week.
That’s Daunte Culpepper, the quarterback who throws the ball to Moss.
Because Moss already is the most feared receiver in football, the prospect of improvement is intriguing.
“He understands better his role as a leader,” Tice explained. “He understands for the first time what comes out of his mouth has a tremendous impact on the team, good and bad. What’s coming out of his mouth in practice and during the game is very good stuff.
“I really think for the first time he has embraced the fact he has a little bit of Pied Piper in him. As he goes, so goes the mind-set of the team. Defensively and offensively they know this guy is the real deal, and he has had a great camp.”
Moss’s off-season began long before camp. In May, he talked Tice into setting up a computer program for him to study opponents. Tice humored him but didn’t expect results. Moss surprised the coach by returning with seven or eight pages of hand-written notes on how teams attacked the Dallas Cowboys, the Vikings’ season-opening opponent.
In camp, Moss worked on blocking and running after the catch. “He’s blocking as good as he ever has,” Tice said.
Tice also noticed that most of Moss’ touchdowns come on end zone catches rather than runs after catches, so he challenged him to become a more dangerous runner. Moss gained 5 pounds and is now 212.
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During a training camp lull, Tice organized a diving competition at the Minnesota State pool. Players and coaches from each position competed.
“When it was over, Moss gets on the springboard and starts doing double flips, jack-knives, touching his toes, swan dives,” Tice said. “He comes out and I said, `Is there any thing you can’t do?’ He says, `Yeah, I can’t play the piano.’
“There is no limitation on Randy Moss. He’ll have a phenomenal year.”
Highlight catch
Aaron Moorehead’s juggling, behind-the-back catch and 80-yard TD run for the Indianapolis Colts against San Diego provided an all-time highlight.
“It’s something you can look back at in 10 years and say, `Look what I did. Look what I did,'” said Moorehead, son of former Bears and Evanston High School receiver Emery Moorehead.
It also may have helped clinch a roster spot for the 6-foot-5-inch Illinois product who made the team as a free agent last year. He caught five passes for 121 yards against the Chargers. But he suffered a separated shoulder late in the game, leaving his status in doubt.
“Critiquing the game, I wasn’t really concerned about that [catch],” he said. “That’s something you can never expect to happen in a game. What you want to do are the other things, and I think I did those pretty well.”
Quarterback Peyton Manning likes what he sees.
“There’s something about that size that jumps out at you,” he said. “We haven’t had a guy like that.”
Gannon fire
From the time the Oakland Raiders signed 31-year-old Kerry Collins, coach Norv Turner said 38-year-old Rich Gannon was his starter. But the 2002 MVP, who was hurt last season, sounds hurt by continuing speculation.
“I’ve been disrespected by a lot people,” Gannon said. “Not so much inside the organization, but just people in general. The media, the everyday casual fan. The guy who calls into the talk-radio show or the guy who writes the fantasy football digest.”
Of course, Gannon added this disclaimer:
“I don’t read the paper. I don’t listen to talk radio,” he said. “But I was in the store a month ago. I was waiting for my wife, and I picked up one of those football digests. I wasn’t even in, like, the top 25 in quarterbacks. Guys in there I couldn’t even pronounce their names, rookies . . .
“It just goes to show you, you get hurt in Week 7, you’re out the rest of the season, your team gets off to a sluggish start, all of a sudden you’re a bum. It’s unbelievable. Oh, I’m not naive. The thing about this business is, the minute you think you’ve finally arrived, the minute you think this is your job, they’re already looking for someone better than you. They’re looking for someone cheaper than you. That’s just the way it is.
“So I know that every day I go out here, I have to compete and play at a very high level. What people don’t understand, I’ve been doing that since the day that I got here. I didn’t need Kerry Collins for me to be motivated.”
Breaking in Brock
Pro wrestler Brock Lesnar, trying out for the Vikings, almost escaped traditional rookie hazing. He didn’t get his hair shaved, but when veterans started gathering the day camp broke, Lesnar said, “I kind of caught onto it.”
Lesnar took off running, displaying his unusual 4.7 speed for someone 6-3 and 290 pounds, but was caught by running back Larry Ned. Of course, Ned needed help bringing him down.
“My argument,” Ned said, “is by the time I get to him, what am I going to do with him?”
Half a dozen players converged on Lesnar and taped his ankles together. Moss dumped a cooler-sized container of water on his head. Then 170-pound receiver Kelly Campbell jumped on the pile, pretended to pin Lesnar and slammed his palm to the ground three times.
“I knew it was coming one of these days,” Lesnar said.
Tice said Lesnar is “probably less than 50-50” to make the practice squad, but the coach likes what he has seen.
“When I was approached I was not receptive because I did not realize he was sincere about trying to make the team. I thought it was a wrestling ploy to get some media attention,” Tice said.
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But Lesnar was persuasive.
“What gets lost in all this hype is the fact he’s a world-class athlete,” Tice said. “He was NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion [in 2000]. His conversation with me was, `I’m an athlete. I’ve trained to be a world-class athlete. That’s entertainment. I want another challenge.'”