Moss' Bad Rep by Media is as Overblown as BB's Bad Rep

Both have done a few things that ended up getting blown up by the media.

Belichick pushed a reporter, and the whole world said he was a bully and an ass and that it reflected his character. Every one of Belichick's handshakes or press conferences are scrutinized and painted to reflect his horrible personality somehow. Spygate, essentially doing 60 in a 45mph zone, has branded him a cheater and some of the worst things I've heard about a coach in awhile. And who can forget Tom Jackson's 'they hate their coach' line.

It's the same thing with Randy Moss. The guy fake-mooned after a touchdown once, and he left a blowout game early with seconds left once. He was frustrated (like Corey Dillon was) in Oakland playing for freaking Art Shell. Each time he's done something imperfect, somehow we were led by the media to believe he was one of the worst human beings and locker room cancers in the league.

Bottom line, this coach and player are all about winning. One may have had social grace issues coming into the league, the other may have had some immaturity issues, but both were blown up so much that the myth about them didn't match up at all to what they were actually were like. Belichick obviously has another side to him off the football field, and Moss is a lot more humble and about winning and team-play than most give him credit for.

Moss was involved with a very serious hate crime in High School, I don't know why he did it, but he almost beat a kid to death.

Randy has been nothing but class and greatness here, but let's not pretend that he was unbleamished before he got here.

FreeTedWilliams said:

Moss was involved with a very serious hate crime in High School, I don't know why he did it, but he almost beat a kid to death. Randy has been nothing but class and greatness here, but let's not pretend that he was unbleamished before he got here.

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I read about Moss' act from high school, I can't say I blame him, that Ernest kid Moss beat was a redneck racist who deserved it, and Moss was punished heavily for it, and lost his scholarship to Notre Dame.

I never said he was unblemished, if you read above I said his bad rep is way overblown, the same way BB's bad rep is way overblown by media.

He also gave a meter maid a ride on his card, but that led to one of the greatest all time quotes ever: "Straight cash homey"

maverick4 said:

I read about Moss' act from high school, I can't say I blame him, that Ernest kid Moss beat was a redneck racist who deserved it, and Moss was punished heavily for it, and lost his scholarship to Notre Dame.

I never said he was unblemished, if you read above I said his bad rep is way overblown, the same way BB's bad rep is way overblown by media.

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Didn't Moss play bumper cars with a traffic cop or something? Regardless, he is great for us and we are lucky to have him.
Character and class are overrated. It is a sport...most of these guys have a bit of an meanstreak or sharp edge to make it this far in life. They have one thing to offer: superb athletic ability and commitment to their craft. I'll take that and leave the rest on the table.

FreeTedWilliams said:

Moss was involved with a very serious hate crime in High School, I don't know why he did it, but he almost beat a kid to death.
Randy has been nothing but class and greatness here, but let's not pretend that he was unbleamished before he got here.

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Perhaps you should check your facts before posting this. Randy did not perpetrate the hate crime, he got in trouble for retaliating against it.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n37_v222/ai_21138124

Sporting News, The, Sept 14, 1998 by Chris Jenkins
How would you like it if people judged you by how you were in high school? Welcome to Randy Moss' world. Listening to the talk leading to draft day, you would have thought Moss spent his summers lighting puppies on fire. But when Moss' critics refer to his "character questions," they're really talking about something that happened when Moss was a senior in high school. On March 24, 1995, one of his friends severely beat a white student who allegedly made a racial slur. Moss was involved and got a 30-day jail sentence as a result.

Moss saw a poster in his high school advertising the school production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" and thought it said "The Importance of Beating Ernest"...

PatsDparty said:

He also gave a meter maid a ride on his card,

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Yeah and Belichick had a 20 year affair with the NY Giants Secretary, what is your point?

maverick4 said:

Yeah and Belichick had a 20 year affair with the NY Giants Secretary, what is your point?

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I don't want to speak for him, but I believe his point would be that when you run over people with your automobile, you generally deserve the bad rap that comes with that.

maverick4 said:

Yeah and Belichick had a 20 year affair with the NY Giants Secretary, what is your point?

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Touchy touchy...obviously you didn't read the second half to my post. I was just saying he got a lot of crap for that, but a great quote came out of it haha. Moss's rap sheet doesn't even touch Dillon's. I've always like randy moss, and just thought he was immature, but never a cancer.

BWareofDWare said:

I don't want to speak for him, but I believe his point would be that when you run over people with your automobile, you generally deserve the bad rap that comes with that.

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He didn't "run over" anybody. The traffic cop sat on his car in the middle of the intersection. This corroborated by MANY witnesses and thus his offense was reduced to a misdemeanor(illegal left turn) and the lawsuit was dismissed(yes the cop tried to sue him for damages).

He didn't run over a meter maid, the woman jumped on his hood trying to stop him from turning, he moved the car while she was on top of it. Excerpt from witnesses: Courtesy of espn

Jerry Hullerman, 46, said he saw the incident while parked near the intersection."I saw a really decked-out Lexus pushing the traffic person along," said Hullerman, who was also interviewed by police. "It was really surreal."
He said the agent was facing forward while sitting on the front of the car with one hand on the hood and the other hand on her radio as the car pushed her along.
After a few seconds, Hullerman said, the man in the car tapped the accelerator and knocked her down. "She fell flat on her face," Hullerman said, adding that the driver didn't get out of his car.
Hullerman said squad cars arrived seconds later and officers took Moss into custody.
Robert and Delaina Nelson of Robbinsdale, Minn., saw much of the incident and called it one of the most ridiculous episodes they've ever seen. They also said they had no doubt that the driver -- whom they later learned was Moss -- did not intend to hurt the traffic agent.

Rather, Delaina Nelson said, it seemed to be a "cat-and-mouse game" in which he wanted her to get out of his way.

"He was in the wrong, and she put herself in a dangerous position," Robert Nelson told the Star Tribune. "I think if he had been a madman, he would have just run over her and kept going."

Moss, 25, is in his fifth year with the Vikings and is the team's highest-paid player. He signed an eight-year, $75 million contract last year.


And he left the game with seconds left, not minutes.

MichaelL said:

He didn't "run over" anybody. The traffic cop sat on his car in the middle of the intersection. This corroborated by MANY witnesses and thus his offense was reduced to a misdemeanor(illegal left turn) and the lawsuit was dismissed(yes the cop tried to sue him for damages).

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You beat me to it MichaelL

Classic "He's our guy, so he can't be bad" rationalization.

Moss has behaved while he's been with us. He also got kicked out of two different colleges despite being the most talented wide receiver of all time. He's had multiple run-ins with the law. And he hasn't worked hard when he doesn't feel like it.

Hopefully this turnaround is permanent (or at least lasts as long as he's a Patriot), but don't BS about his past.

PantsB said:

but don't BS about his past.

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Who is BS'ing about his past? Did you even read the title of this thread

PantsB said:

Classic "He's our guy, so he can't be bad" rationalization.

Moss has behaved while he's been with us. He also got kicked out of two different colleges despite being the most talented wide receiver of all time. He's had multiple run-ins with the law. And he hasn't worked hard when he doesn't feel like it.

Hopefully this turnaround is permanent (or at least lasts as long as he's a Patriot), but don't BS about his past.

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Yeah and anyone here that's ever had a traffic ticket has had a "run-in" with the law too, what's your point? He's had some issues, but he's hardly deserving of the scrutiny that the media gives his every move considering the other guys who play in the NFL.

So Moss' friend beat someone up in High School and all of a sudden he "committed a Hate Crime." Oh and some money grubbing meter maid saw an opportunity to go after a celebrity. Here's the good o'ld-fashioned Boston mentality I've missed.

If you looked at Moss is off the field offenses, they really are not worthy of that "trouble with the law" reputation he has in some circles. Besides the incident with the meter maid and the racial incident in highschool , his only other real off the field problems have been marijuana related. Thats miniscule compared to guys like Vick, Pacman, Lewis etc...

As for his negative rep ON the field and in the locker room, his only real problem has been sulking and not giving 100% at times of extreme adversity. I put extreme in bold because some people think he folds at the smallest dose of adversity, like if he has 1 subpar game. That completely wrong, its always been in extreme situations like in Oakland, or like in the 2nd half of 2004 when the Vikes completely **** the bed and lost 6 of their last 7. But even when he's been at his sulking worst, he's only brought himself down, he's never pulled stunts like TO and badmouthed teammates, QBs etc...He's nothing like TO in that regard, even when things are going bad.

At the end of the day, he isnt a choir boy and I dont think anyone has ever claime as much, so lets not turn this around and make this about that. However, his negative reputation, both on and off the field, has been sensantionalized to the Nth degree by the media.

Xzibit23 said:

If you looked at Moss is off the field offenses, they really are not worthy of that "trouble with the law" reputation he has in some circles. Besides the incident with the meter maid and the racial incident in highschool , his only other real off the field problems have been marijuana related. Thats miniscule compared to guys like Vick, Pacman, Lewis etc...

As for his negative rep ON the field and in the locker room, his only real problem has been sulking and not giving 100% at times of extreme adversity. I put extreme in bold because some people think he folds at the smallest dose of adversity, like if he has 1 subpar game. That completely wrong, its always been in extreme situations like in Oakland, or like in the 2nd half of 2004 when the Vikes completely **** the bed and lost 6 of their last 7.

At the end of the day, he isnt a choir boy and I dont think anyone has ever claim as much, so lets not make this about that. However, his negative reputation, both on and off the field, has been sensantionalized to the Nth degree by the media.

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Yeah I think that's the point the OP was trying to make. On a scale of 1-10 in terms of incidents and even law-breaking, if we put guys like Vick and Pacman Jones as 10 and "squeeky" clean guys as 1, Moss is probably a 3-4 given his past. However, the media seems to treat him like a 8-9, like he's likely to go off the reservation at any time and scrutinizes his every move. In my opinion, it's mostly undeserved. Nobody's trying to cover his past up, it's a matter of public record, however the media has exaggerated the seriousness of all of his incidents.

Xzibit23 said:

If you looked at Moss is off the field offenses, they really are not worthy of that "trouble with the law" reputation he has in some circles. Besides the incident with the meter maid and the racial incident in highschool , his only other real off the field problems have been marijuana related. Thats miniscule compared to guys like Vick, Pacman, Lewis etc...

As for his negative rep ON the field and in the locker room, his only real problem has been sulking and not giving 100% at times of extreme adversity. I put extreme in bold because some people think he folds at the smallest dose of adversity, like if he has 1 subpar game. That completely wrong, its always been in extreme situations like in Oakland, or like in the 2nd half of 2004 when the Vikes completely **** the bed and lost 6 of their last 7. But even when he's been at his sulking worst, he's only brought himself down, he's never pulled stunts like TO and badmouthed teammates, QBs etc...He's nothing like TO in that regard, even when things are going bad.

At the end of the day, he isnt a choir boy and I dont think anyone has ever claime as much, so lets not turn this around and make this about that. However, his negative reputation, both on and off the field, has been sensantionalized to the Nth degree by the media.

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excellent post. I'm surprised that after what has happened to BB, people don't think a little more critically about the way the media portrays certain people. The media could make anyone a saint or a devil depending on which way they choose to run with the story.