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Randy Moss unplugged: Outtakes from and about the Vikings' Hall of Fame receiver

August 3, 2018 at 4:46AM

Fans remember Randy Moss as a human highlight reel during his career. But what about the behind-the-scenes stories they might not know about? (Brian Wicker — Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Fans remember Randy Moss as a human highlight reel during his career. But what about the behind-the-scenes stories they might not know about? We break down two of those, as well as one of Moss' most memorable on-field moments at Lambeau Field.

Moss too fast on snowmobile

Randy Moss remembers his first experience on a snowmobile. It's a painful memory.

"I'm in Minnesota and it's the offseason early in my career," he said. "We're going up this hill. I hit the gas. Nothing. I hit it again. Nothing."

Someone yelled to him, "Give it a little more."

"I gunned it and it was like, vroom!" Moss said. "I'm like 8, 9 feet in the air. I jump off the snowmobile, land and get this big gash in my ankle. Needed stitches. Bad."

But Moss hates needles.

"I head to Winter Park to see the trainers," Moss said. "I knock on the door. I say, 'Don't call anybody. Don't say nothing.' They said, 'Randy, you need stitches.' I say, 'I'm not getting no stitches.' Get me some tape. They put like five of those stirrups on there and I left."

Moss' moon over Lambeau

Moss thought he was being funny, not disrespectful, when he bent over and pretended to moon Packers fans after catching a touchdown pass in a playoff win at Green Bay in January 2005.

"I tell you what would have been disrespectful — actually pulling down my pants," he said. "I really thought it was cool. ... I thought it would be a hee-hee, haw-haw moment."

He said he was just joking with fans, some of whom make it a tradition of mooning the opposing team's buses on game day.

"You drive into Green Bay and there's this whole line of big old white butts up on the hill," he said. "I looked at that and I'm like, 'For real?' "

Moss was fined $10,000.

Days later, leaving practice, he gave the quote that has followed him to this day. Asked how he'd pay the fine, Moss said, "Straight cash, homey."

"I wasn't trying to be funny," Moss says all these years later. "I was frustrated. Leaving work. I barely remember saying it. It gets on 'SportsCenter.' I call Coach [Mike] Tice and he's like, 'Oh, Randy.' And I said, 'Coach, I wasn't trying to be disrespectful.' I just said what I felt."

Red, Zygi disagree on Moss 'deal'

As he welcomed Moss into the Vikings Ring of Honor during a private ceremony last September, owner Zygi Wilf told the Super-Freak he never should have been traded to Oakland back in 2005.

The Wilfs were in the process of buying the team from Red McCombs when he was traded.

"One of the conditions [in the sale] was that you were going to stay with us," Wilf said. "A week later, we found out you were traded."

McCombs said last week by phone from San Antonio that there was no such agreement.

"That's not true," McCombs said. "I would never make that agreement. That never happened."

Moss said he thinks McCombs' inability to get a new stadium is the reason he was traded.

"That man didn't get his stadium, couldn't get no [public] money," Moss said. "I think there were bad words exchanged and he said, 'OK, I'll take Randy from you.' "

McCombs ordered the trade despite objections throughout the organization.

"We had seven years together, and they were great," McCombs said. "But the last three or four games, Randy lost his place in the locker room. To this day, I still don't know what happened. He was still a prized player, but not the way he became with us. I don't know what happened, but he was not the same guy."

Mark Craig