I'd like to go on record here as saying that having seen Rice and Moss throughout their respective careers, there is no doubt in my mind that Moss is on a totally different level than Rice.
Moss is a freak of nature who finally has a HOF (GOAT) QB throwing to him and in the first year here, in worse weather and against far better opposition, he beats Rice's record.
Seriously, I don't see room for argument here.
Talent wise, yes.
Work ethic and overall production, Moss is so far behind Rice that your post IMO is way off.
Results are what counts, not potential.
If Moss has so much more potential, as you claim, and I also agree, then it just make his comparative lack of similar career results all the more of a gap between him and Jerry Rice. Not saying that Moss's body of work isn't impressive. Just that he will never catch Rice. He would have to play until he is about 45.
Jerry Rice and Walter Payton were the two hardest working football players in the offseason. They spent their time running up mountain sides and training endlessly.
If Moss had Rice's work ethic, he just might have his production as well. He wouldn't ever have taken a single play off. I watched him all those years with the Vikings. I watched him pull antics, take plays off, drop balls due to lack of concentration, spend his time making goofy faces at the opposing team's sidelines. All that stuff. I saw it with my own two eyes.
I wanted him to come to the Pats because I knew that he still had the talent, and was capable of maturing. But to compare him to Rice as a football player who is getting the job done on the field to the best of his ability, Moss has only one season which we can really look at as the best of Moss. Rice has an entire career as the best of Rice.
I don't buy into the argument that Moss is better because he has more natural talent. He will be better when his production says so. Right now it is not even close.
Rice's numbers are off the chart. Staggering. Moss will never catch him.
