Today In Patriots History Feb 13: Happy Birthday to Randy Moss

[jmt57]

Today in Patriots History
Randy Moss​

Happy birthday to Randy Gene Moss, the pride of Rand, West Virginia and dean of Rand University. Although he played in New England for a much shorter time than Stanley Morgan, the argument can be made that Moss is the greatest wide receiver in Patriots history. Moss was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018. Hopefully Randy will remain cancer-free and healthy for the rest of his life.


Happy 48th birthday to Randy Moss
Born Feb 13, 1977 in Rand, West Virginia
Patriot WR, 2007-2010; uniform #81
Acquired April 29, 2007 from the Oakland Raiders in exchange for a 2007 fourth round draft pick (#110 overall). (That turned out to be John Bowie, who played in a total of five games in his NFL career).


Regular season stats and franchise rankings:

• 50 touchdown receptions (in just 52 games!) ranks 3rd in team history
• 3,904 receiving yards ranks 12th
• 259 receptions ranks 14th
• 75.1 yards receiving per game ranks 2nd
• 15.1 yards per catch ranks 16th (minimum 100 receptions)
• Patriots record with Randy Moss: 40-12 (.769)
• Named to Patriots All-Decade Team of the 2000s

Randy Moss 2007 Patriots vs. Jets (First Game as Patriot):
​

Awards and NFL season rankings while with Patriots:

• 2007 Comeback Player of the Year
• 2007 First Team All Pro
• 2007 Pro Bowl
• 2007 Offensive Player of the Week for Week 9
• 2007 Offensive Player of the Week for Week 11
• 2007 Offensive Player of the Month for November
• Set NFL record for TD receptions in single season with 23 in 2007
• Also in 2007: ranked 1st in total touchdowns (23); ranked 2nd in points scored (138); ranked 2nd in yards receiving (1,493); ranked 8th in total yards from scrimmage (1,493)
• 2009: led NFL in touchdown receptions (13); 5th in receiving yards (1,264)

Randy Moss Patriots Highlights | 2007-2010:
​

Randy Moss | Pro Football Hall of Fame | Pro Football Hall of Fame

Randy Moss was drafted 21st overall in the 1998 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings which resulted in a record breaking 14 year career. Learn more about one of the best wide receivers to ever play.

www.profootballhof.com

In 2007, Moss set the NFL single-season record for touchdown receptions in a season with 23 to help the New England Patriots become the only team to finish a regular season with perfect 16-0 record. Moss made two Super Bowl appearances – Super Bowl XLII with the New England Patriots and XLVII with the San Francisco 49ers.​

Moss caught 10 or more touchdown passes in nine seasons and had 10 seasons with 1,000 yards receiving. A six-time Pro Bowl selection, Moss received first-team All-Pro honors four times and was named to the NFL All-Decade Team of the 2000s. He finished his career with 982 receptions for 15,292 yards and 156 touchdowns. His career receiving yards and career touchdowns ranked third and fourth respectively in the NFL record book at the time of his retirement.​

Randy Moss - The Freak
12:11 Highlight Video
​

 

[signbabybrady]

12 + 81 = 7

 

[Brotherblues]

At 48 and fresh off the hospital where he had one foot on the other side... He's still faster and better than Polk.

 

[jmt57]

February 13, 2004:
The New England Patriots promote Josh McDaniels to quarterbacks coach.
The 27-year old McDaniels had been hired in 2001 as a personnel assistant, and worked as a defensive coaching assistant from 2002-03.
Prior to joining the Pats he worked as a grad assistant at Michigan State in 1999 for Nick Saban, then as a plastics sales rep in Cleveland (which paid far more than his first job in Foxborough).

Is McDaniels building Foxborough West?

Denver coach Josh McDaniels has been called part Bill Belichick for his offensive approaches, but he's also the spitting image of his father, Thom McDaniels, a legend in Ohio high school coaching circles.

www.espn.com

Aqib Talib headlines the list of other Patriots celebrating a February 13 birth date.


Happy 39th birthday to Aqib Talib
Born February 13, 1986 in Cleveland; raised in Richardson, Texas
Patriot CB, 2012-2013; uniform #31
Acquired on Nov 1, 2012 with a 7th round draft pick (Michael Buchanan) from Tampa Bay in exchange for a fourth round pick (William Gholston).

Perhaps the most telling statistic of the time Aqib Talib spent in New England is the won-loss record. The Pats were 15-4 in the regular season with Talib – but just 2-2 in the playoffs. My first thought of Talib as a Patriot is not his one pick-six, but that of him standing on the sideline in postseason losses to Baltimore and Denver.

In 19 regular season games with the Patriots he had five interceptions, 16 passes defensed, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. Talib also had 65 tackles (51 solo) with one tackle for a loss. In what was viewed as a Corey Dillon/Randy Moss move at the time, the Pats acquired a talented player for a relative bargain after he had worn out his welcome elsewhere. Aqib Talib's NFL career began by getting in a fight with another player at the rookie symposium, followed by an assault and battery on a Tampa taxi driver, and then a four game suspension for PEDs. Unfortunately he turned out to be just a year and a half rental, for the price of a 4th round draft pick.

Talib signed a six-year, $57 million contract that included $26 million guaranteed with Denver on the first day of free agency in 2014. He was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his four seasons with the Broncos (his only other Pro Bowl was with the Pats in 2013). He made two super bowl appearances: winning one when Denver beat Carolina after the 2015 season (after the Broncos beat the Pats 20-18 in the AFCCG), and losing the other when the Patriots beat the Rams 13-3 in SB 53. Talib played in 148 games over 12 NFL seasons with four teams, with 35 interceptions and ten touchdowns. He retired on September 9, 2020 after turning down an offer to return to the Patriots at the age of 34.


28-slide photo gallery on Patriots.com:

2013 Best of Aqib Talib

Check out a selection of the best images of Patriots Pro Bowl CB Aqib Talib from the 2013-14 NFL Season.

www.patriots.com

March 12, 2014 Boston Globe debate:


​

Happy 69th birthday to John Zamberlin
Born February 13, 1956 in Tacoma, Washington
Patriot ILB, 1979-1982; uniform #54
Pats 5th round (135th overall) selection of the 1979 draft, from Pacific Lutheran

John Zamberlin played in 56 games over four seasons with the Patriots, then finished his NFL career with two more years in Kansas City. Since then he has a very extensive coaching career that includes ten years as head coach at Central Washington and four more as head coach at Idaho State. After two seasons as a linebackers coach in the CFL, since 2019 John Zamberlin has been a high school football coach in Idaho.

He played in the NFL, led a D-I program. Now at 63, he’s a first-time high school coach - Idaho Statesman




In memory of Willie Scott, who would have turned 66 today
Born February 13, 1959 in Newberry, South Carolina
Patriot TE, 1986-1988; uniform #88
Acquired on July 22, 1986 from KC in exchange for a 1987 8th round draft pick.

Willie Scott was the 14th overall pick of the 1981 draft by the Chiefs, out of South Carolina. He was a backup to Greg Hawthorne and then Lin Dawson in his first two seasons, then became an afterthought when Russ Francis re-joined the Pats at the age of 35 in 1988. Willie played in 99 NFL games from 1981 to 1988 with 15 touchdowns. He returned to South Carolina as a high school teacher’s assistant and assistant football coach until an unfortunate choking incident occurred in 2019. Willie passed away two years later, a few days shy of his 62nd birthday.

Former college star, NFL TE Willie Scott charged with choking high school student

A former University of South Carolina football player who went on to become a first round NFL selection is accused of choking a high school student until he lost consciousness. The frightening incident was reported by The State of Columbia. Willie Scott has been

www.usatodayhss.com

Happy 47th birthday to Michael Stone
Born February 13, 1978 in Southfield, Michigan
Patriot safety, 2005; uniform #24
Signed as a veteran free agent on September 27, 2005.

Michael Stone was originally a second round draft pick by Arizona in 2001. He played in 13 games with three starts in his one season in Foxboro, making 46 tackles. Stone was added to the roster for depth[/URL] after Rodney Harrison suffered a week three knee injury at Pittsburgh.

Patriots sign safety Stone

News in brief from around the NFL.

www.espn.com

Other pro football players born on this date with a New England connection:

Leo Douglass (1901-1985)
Wakefield, Mass; University of Vermont
The fullback and defensive back played for the Brooklyn Lions and the 1926 champion Frankford Yellow Jackets. Prior to that he was part of a pre-NFL travelling football team with Jim Thorpe.

Millville Athletic Club

Bethlehem Bears




Cornelius 'Con' O’Brien (1898-1993)
Born in Boston; High School of Commerce, Boston; Boston College
Con (not Conan) O'Brien was a tackle with the New York Brickley Giants in the twenties.
After serving in the Army in World War I, Con worked for 45 years in the Boston Police Department, reaching the rank of captain prior to his retirement in 1966.

 

[Pape]

Randy Moss...

no tribute to Moss would be complete without this...


Moss may have started his career as a Viking, but he ended up a Patriot...

so, back in 2007 when we traded for him, I was not on board... thought he was trouble... but I was wrong on that one... Oh boy was I wrong... 2007 wouldn't have been 2007 without Moss... eventually, two years later, some of the unpredictability bubbled up when BB was being an asshat with a contract, and he was sent to Minnesota... be that as it may, in 2007 he was fantastic...

Late in the 2007 season, and the wins continued to pile up, I was offered tickets to Game 17 in New York... My cousins father in law was a Giants sth, and because it was a night game, he didn't want to drive from RI to Jersey for an 8 pm game... I wound up with the tickets... Having secured the tickets by applying a liberal amount of cash to the palm of my cousins hand, my buddy Bob and I rumbled down the Merritt (he was living in the middle of CT at the time so it made sense) and went to the game...

Brady was sitting at 48 td's, one shy of Mannings record of 49 & Moss was standing at 21 td's, within reach of Jerry Rice's record 22 td's in a single season... Brady & Moss connected early in the second to tie both records... Add to that the potential 16-0 season? Goosebumps... You knew there was a real shot at history being made...

In the fourth quarter, Moss split out to the right, raced thru the secondary and Brady heaved the ball deep... Moss almost made the catch... it was just a bit short, but Moss couldn't snag it off the carpet... Would he have scored? that was iffy, as Moss dragged a lot of blue shirts down the field with him...

The next play Josh McDaniels dialed up the same play back to back... Moss to the right, straight go route deep into the Giants secondary... Oh man, it was pretty... Brady launched a beauty, hit Moss in stride... and he gallops into the end zone... Records Broken! Brady hits 50, passing Mannings 49, Moss passes Rice at 22... History made! One of the most exciting plays of the season! Man, we were effin' giddy, lol... made the slog home that much more enjoyable lol... (if you think Gillette is bad, it ain't got nothing on leaving the Meadow Lands... especially when you are not all too familiar with the area)

anyways, enjoy the 50/23 play...

 

[Huckleberry1]

Greatest WR of all time. Happy Birthday GOAT.

 

[Pape]

February 13, 2004:
The New England Patriots promote Josh McDaniels to quarterbacks coach.
The 27-year old McDaniels had been hired in 2001 as a personnel assistant, and worked as a defensive coaching assistant from 2002-03.
Prior to joining the Pats he worked as a grad assistant at Michigan State in 1999 for Nick Saban, then as a plastics sales rep in Cleveland (which paid far more than his first job in Foxborough).

Is McDaniels building Foxborough West?

Denver coach Josh McDaniels has been called part Bill Belichick for his offensive approaches, but he's also the spitting image of his father, Thom McDaniels, a legend in Ohio high school coaching circles.

www.espn.com

Aqib Talib headlines the list of other Patriots celebrating a February 13 birth date.


Happy 39th birthday to Aqib Talib
Born February 13, 1986 in Cleveland; raised in Richardson, Texas
Patriot CB, 2012-2013; uniform #31
Acquired on Nov 1, 2012 with a 7th round draft pick (Michael Buchanan) from Tampa Bay in exchange for a fourth round pick (William Gholston).

Perhaps the most telling statistic of the time Aqib Talib spent in New England is the won-loss record. The Pats were 15-4 in the regular season with Talib – but just 2-2 in the playoffs. My first thought of Talib as a Patriot is not his one pick-six, but that of him standing on the sideline in postseason losses to Baltimore and Denver.

In 19 regular season games with the Patriots he had five interceptions, 16 passes defensed, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. Talib also had 65 tackles (51 solo) with one tackle for a loss. In what was viewed as a Corey Dillon/Randy Moss move at the time, the Pats acquired a talented player for a relative bargain after he had worn out his welcome elsewhere. Aqib Talib's NFL career began by getting in a fight with another player at the rookie symposium, followed by an assault and battery on a Tampa taxi driver, and then a four game suspension for PEDs. Unfortunately he turned out to be just a year and a half rental, for the price of a 4th round draft pick.

Talib signed a six-year, $57 million contract that included $26 million guaranteed with Denver on the first day of free agency in 2014. He was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his four seasons with the Broncos (his only other Pro Bowl was with the Pats in 2013). He made two super bowl appearances: winning one when Denver beat Carolina after the 2015 season (after the Broncos beat the Pats 20-18 in the AFCCG), and losing the other when the Patriots beat the Rams 13-3 in SB 53. Talib played in 148 games over 12 NFL seasons with four teams, with 35 interceptions and ten touchdowns. He retired on September 9, 2020 after turning down an offer to return to the Patriots at the age of 34.


28-slide photo gallery on Patriots.com:

2013 Best of Aqib Talib

Check out a selection of the best images of Patriots Pro Bowl CB Aqib Talib from the 2013-14 NFL Season.

www.patriots.com

March 12, 2014 Boston Globe debate:


​

Happy 69th birthday to John Zamberlin
Born February 13, 1956 in Tacoma, Washington
Patriot ILB, 1979-1982; uniform #54
Pats 5th round (135th overall) selection of the 1979 draft, from Pacific Lutheran

John Zamberlin played in 56 games over four seasons with the Patriots, then finished his NFL career with two more years in Kansas City. Since then he has a very extensive coaching career that includes ten years as head coach at Central Washington and four more as head coach at Idaho State. After two seasons as a linebackers coach in the CFL, since 2019 John Zamberlin has been a high school football coach in Idaho.

He played in the NFL, led a D-I program. Now at 63, he’s a first-time high school coach - Idaho Statesman




In memory of Willie Scott, who would have turned 66 today
Born February 13, 1959 in Newberry, South Carolina
Patriot TE, 1986-1988; uniform #88
Acquired on July 22, 1986 from KC in exchange for a 1987 8th round draft pick.

Willie Scott was the 14th overall pick of the 1981 draft by the Chiefs, out of South Carolina. He was a backup to Greg Hawthorne and then Lin Dawson in his first two seasons, then became an afterthought when Russ Francis re-joined the Pats at the age of 35 in 1988. Willie played in 99 NFL games from 1981 to 1988 with 15 touchdowns. He returned to South Carolina as a high school teacher’s assistant and assistant football coach until an unfortunate choking incident occurred in 2019. Willie passed away two years later, a few days shy of his 62nd birthday.

Former college star, NFL TE Willie Scott charged with choking high school student

A former University of South Carolina football player who went on to become a first round NFL selection is accused of choking a high school student until he lost consciousness. The frightening incident was reported by The State of Columbia. Willie Scott has been

www.usatodayhss.com

Happy 47th birthday to Michael Stone
Born February 13, 1978 in Southfield, Michigan
Patriot safety, 2005; uniform #24
Signed as a veteran free agent on September 27, 2005.

Michael Stone was originally a second round draft pick by Arizona in 2001. He played in 13 games with three starts in his one season in Foxboro, making 46 tackles. Stone was added to the roster for depth[/URL] after Rodney Harrison suffered a week three knee injury at Pittsburgh.

Patriots sign safety Stone

News in brief from around the NFL.

www.espn.com

Other pro football players born on this date with a New England connection:

Leo Douglass (1901-1985)
Wakefield, Mass; University of Vermont
The fullback and defensive back played for the Brooklyn Lions and the 1926 champion Frankford Yellow Jackets. Prior to that he was part of a pre-NFL travelling football team with Jim Thorpe.

Millville Athletic Club

Bethlehem Bears




Cornelius 'Con' O’Brien (1898-1993)
Born in Boston; High School of Commerce, Boston; Boston College
Con (not Conan) O'Brien was a tackle with the New York Brickley Giants in the twenties.
After serving in the Army in World War I, Con worked for 45 years in the Boston Police Department, reaching the rank of captain prior to his retirement in 1966.

Some pics if you want to add them to your cache...

John Zamberlin


Willie Scott


Michael Stone

 

[signbabybrady]

Randy Moss...

no tribute to Moss would be complete without this...


Moss may have started his career as a Viking, but he ended up a Patriot...

so, back in 2007 when we traded for him, I was not on board... thought he was trouble... but I was wrong on that one... Oh boy was I wrong... 2007 wouldn't have been 2007 without Moss... eventually, two years later, some of the unpredictability bubbled up when BB was being an asshat with a contract, and he was sent to Minnesota... be that as it may, in 2007 he was fantastic...

Late in the 2007 season, and the wins continued to pile up, I was offered tickets to Game 17 in New York... My cousins father in law was a Giants sth, and because it was a night game, he didn't want to drive from RI to Jersey for an 8 pm game... I wound up with the tickets... Having secured the tickets by applying a liberal amount of cash to the palm of my cousins hand, my buddy Bob and I rumbled down the Merritt (he was living in the middle of CT at the time so it made sense) and went to the game...

Brady was sitting at 48 td's, one shy of Mannings record of 49 & Moss was standing at 21 td's, within reach of Jerry Rice's record 22 td's in a single season... Brady & Moss connected early in the second to tie both records... Add to that the potential 16-0 season? Goosebumps... You knew there was a real shot at history being made...

In the fourth quarter, Moss split out to the right, raced thru the secondary and Brady heaved the ball deep... Moss almost made the catch... it was just a bit short, but Moss couldn't snag it off the carpet... Would he have scored? that was iffy, as Moss dragged a lot of blue shirts down the field with him...

The next play Josh McDaniels dialed up the same play back to back... Moss to the right, straight go route deep into the Giants secondary... Oh man, it was pretty... Brady launched a beauty, hit Moss in stride... and he gallops into the end zone... Records Broken! Brady hits 50, passing Mannings 49, Moss passes Rice at 22... History made! One of the most exciting plays of the season! Man, we were effin' giddy, lol... made the slog home that much more enjoyable lol... (if you think Gillette is bad, it ain't got nothing on leaving the Meadow Lands... especially when you are not all too familiar with the area)

anyways, enjoy the 50/23 play...

I went to 15 of the 19 games that year. Including week 17. That was a fun culmination to the greatest regular season.

 

[Pape]

I went to 15 of the 19 games that year. Including week 17. That was a fun culmination to the greatest regular season.

Indeed it was... I went to all the home games, but that was the only away game I made it to... But if there was one to be at, it was that one.

 

[Patsfan1645]

I have only been to a handful of Pats game as its a trip from VA. I envy you guys for being in Foxboro's backyard getting to be at so many special moments in Pats history. I tried to convince the wife in 2022 when I retired from law enforcement to move up around the Foxboro area. I told her I would work at the stadium doing whatever they would give me a job at doing just to be there on Sundays with all the fans. Hell lets be honest I would show up and work for free if they would let me.