Randy Moss, Joe Buck and a ‘disgusting act’ revisited

In the moment, on Jan. 9, 2005, all we knew was that Vikings receiver Randy Moss had just hauled in a crucial touchdown in a playoff game against the Packers at Lambeau Field, a 34-yard score that put the Vikings ahead by the eventual final score of 31-17.

He then ran over near the goalposts, turned his back to the partisan Green Bay crowd, and pretended like he was mooning them.

Joe Buck, then the play-by-play voice for Fox, took in everything that was happening and had this memorable thing to say: “That is a disgusting act by Randy Moss. And it’s unfortunate that we had that on our air live.”

Vikings fans, some of whom already didn’t care for Buck, developed a more intense dislike for him — the residue of which remains to this day.

But the context of the moment has been fleshed out over the years. And with the benefit of — so sorry for the pun — hindsight, maybe we should view it differently?

Moss has explained his side of what happened fairly recently, expressing no regrets. Buck? He really wishes he could have a do-over, as I talked about on Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

In an interview this week, Buck — who has talked about the call before in similar but maybe not so absolute terms — was asked this question: If you could go back in time and redo one call, what would it be?

Without hesitation, he brought up the “disgusting act” call after the Moss touchdown. He talked about how he and Moss later became friendly through overlapping media jobs and then said this:

“The more time goes on, the more I think, ‘Man, I can’t even believe that came out of my mouth,’” Buck said.

Buck also talked about not knowing the context at the time: Moss had missed the game at Lambeau during the regular season and was taunted by the band. And when the Vikings arrived for the playoff game, several Packers fans mooned the team bus.

A disgusting act? Nah, it was pretty funny — especially when you know the back story.

That said, it turned out to be one of Moss’s final acts in his first go-round with the Vikings. They lost to the Eagles in the division round the following week, and a month later he was traded to the Raiders.

It was all a long time ago. Maybe Vikings fans can let go (at least a little) of their disdain for Buck now?

Here are four more things to know today:

*Jim Harbaugh is back in the NFL as the head coach of the Chargers. Whether he succeeds or fails there — and he has succeeded pretty much everywhere he has been as a coach — the inclination to think about the Vikings coaching search in 2022 that included Harbaugh but ended with the hire of Kevin O’Connell will be even stronger now.

*The Wolves looked more like themselves Wednesday in dispatching the lowly Wizards. Their first half was sluggish at times, but it looked more like a function of cold shooting than effort. And the second half was exactly what you would want it to be.

*Sarah McLellan joined Thursday’s podcast to talk about the up-and-down Wild. They are clinging to the fringes of the playoff race, and Thursday’s game against Nashville is very important.

*Friday’s expected podcast guest is former Twins pitcher Glen Perkins, a longtime teammate of Joe Mauer and a current analyst with the Twins.