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Fran Charles: JaMarcus Russell went number one, Calvin Johnson two, and Brady Quinn slipped to 22nd overall, but the biggest story of the '07 NFL Draft may have come on day two. The New England Patriots reached out to Randy, acquiring the disgruntled Moss from the Raiders for just a fourth round pick. Most recently, Moss sat down with his former teammate from Minnesota, Matthew Hatchette, and explained why this year will be different.
[Film clips]
Matthew Hatchette: You look happy. You're smiling! A new city, new town and whatnot. How is New England treating you?
Randy Moss: I'm enjoying it. It's a pleasure to be here, definitely, with the organization that really has high expectations for themselves, and everything they've accomplished. And I know it's in the past, what they've done, but it's a pleasure to be here. I mean, they've been able to do it. And that's what I want to have – an opportunity, or a chance, to play in a Super Bowl. I didn't say anything about, 'I want to come there and get me a ring. We're going to do it this year.' No, I'm not talking like that, because that's not the philosophy here. The philosophy is, we're going to work hard every day. We're going to put 11 guys on the field, and the 11 guys we put on the field, we'll see what happens.
MH: How do you feel going into the season? Like mentally, physically.
RM: One of my phrases coming out was, I wanted to 'rip the league up.' [Film clip of Randy Moss in Minnesota] And I still, still, at ten years in the league, being in the New England Patriots I'm right back to that. I'm coming to rip it up. I really am. Look at the players they have here. Look at the head coach. Look at the owner. I mean, the atmosphere is pretty here – look at the stadium. Who wouldn't want to play in an atmosphere like this? You have guys like Tedy Bruschi, you have Rodney Harrison, you have Kevin Faulk, you have Troy Brown, you have all these great groups of guys on this team. Who wouldn't want to be a part of what they're doing? And I can't leave my dog out, #12, Tom Brady. So if arguably Tom Brady's not the best quarterback of all time, then he's sitting right there neck-and-neck to whoever the best might be. So as a receiver, who wouldn't want to play with a quarterback like that? So it's really something that I really looked at.
MH: So you like Belichick?
RM: I love him.
MH: You guys talk at all, like off the field?
RM: No. To us, he's a people person. Because he does talk to us; we do hold conversations. But to go out of his way just to come and hold a conversation, I know he doesn't do that.
MH: Do you believe that you'll be able to perform just as well here in New England as you did in, say, Minnesota those first couple years?
RM: I just want to go out here and just contribute to my team. Whatever it may be. I don't really want to sit here and tell you that I'm going to do this or I'm going to put up these numbers or I should be seeing this many balls or score this many touchdowns. That's not my mindset. My mindset is to do whatever I can to help this team win some games – and that's basically knowing your role. My role is to catch balls, get open, score touchdowns.
MH: OK, in '98, and 2000, we barely miss the Super Bowl by one game. Was that a bigger deal then or is it a bigger deal now?
RM: The reason why it's a bigger deal now is because I haven't seen a championship game since 2000. The reason why it wasn't a big deal back then was for the fact that we were young. 'Oh, we'll get back. We'll get back.' But Cris Carter once told me, 'You better cherish those moments, because you don't ever know when you'll ever get an opportunity like that to be on a pedestal like that again.' Now that I'm a little bit older and seeing the things – like really see it – it's like 'Wow, I didn't really take advantage of it.' But now that I'm 10 years in the league, if I get an opportunity again I'll take advantage of it, trust me.
MH: So…what is it about?
RM: It's about winning.
MH: That's it.
RM: It's about winning. This is a game that we play in. I really can't be in [a] better place than New England…because I have a head coach that, all he cares about is winning. I think that players get frustrated…and they should really hurt, you should get frustrated when you lose. The thing about losing is how you handle that pressure of losing. Some people can handle it, some people can't. Early in my career, I couldn't handle it. Because I'm not used to losing. But now that I'm a little older and I have lost in the course of my career a lot of games…
MH: [Laughter]
RM: A lot of games. So it was very frustrating. But like I said, I'm with a great group of guys. They know how to work, they know how to come out here and prepare themselves, and at the same time, they don't like losing. That's something I can definitely appreciate. Because we play this game to win.
MH: Besides the ring, in professional football, what's left?
RM: The sport, I love it. Whenever that drive and that will leaves me, that's when I'll probably leave the game. But right now I don't plan on stopping [any] time soon.
Full video available on patriots.com. |
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