Randy Gene Moss (born February 13, 1977) is a former American football wide receiver who

played 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He holds the NFL single-season
touchdown reception record (23 in 2007), the NFL single-season touchdown reception record for
a rookie (17 in 1998), and is second on the NFL all-time regular season touchdown reception list
with 156.

Moss played college football for Marshall University, and twice earned All-America honors. He
was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft, where he played
for seven years before a trade in 2005 brought him to the Oakland Raiders. On April 29, 2007,
Moss was traded to the New England Patriots for a fourth-round draft pick. On October 6, 2010,
Moss returned to the Vikings in a trade from the Patriots. However, his second stint in Minnesota
was short-lived, as he was waived by the team less than a month later, and claimed by the
Tennessee Titans. After sitting out the 2011 season, Moss signed a one-year contract with the San
Francisco 49ers for the 2012 season then opted to retire prior to the 2013 season.[1]

Early year
Moss was born and raised in Rand, West Virginia.[2][3] He attended DuPont High School, one of
two schools that later consolidated into Riverside High School, where he excelled in football,
basketball, baseball, and track. Randy was also on the school's debate team.[4] On the football
field, Moss led the DuPont Panthers to back-to-back state championships in 1992 and 1993. He
was a star at wide receiver, but also played free safety, returned kickoffs and punts, and was the
team's kicker and punter. In 1994, he was honored with the Kennedy Award as the West Virginia
Football Player of the Year. Parade magazine named him to their annual All-American high
school football team in 1995[5] and in 2009 named him one of the 50 greatest high school football
players of all time.[6] At DuPont, he was a teammate of future Chicago Bears linebacker Bobbie
Howard.[7]

In addition to playing football at DuPont, Moss was twice named West Virginia Player of the
Year in basketball (1993, 1994), where he was a teammate of future NBA player Jason Williams.

As a sophomore in 1992, at the age of 15 years, Moss joined the track & field team and was the
West Virginia state champion in the 100 and 200 meters with times of 10.94 seconds[8] and 21.95
seconds,[9] respectively. This was the only year he competed on the school's track team, but he
would later join the Marshall track team and lower his 200 m time to 21.15 seconds. He also
played center field for the baseball team.

College career
Moss's dream was to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish,[10] but he also considered going to
Ohio State, where his half-brother, Eric, had played offensive tackle. Former Notre Dame head
coach Lou Holtz said "Randy Moss was the best high school football player I've ever seen."[11]
Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden said "He was as good as Deion Sanders. Deion's my
measuring stick for athletic ability, and this kid was just a bigger Deion."[12]
After originally signing a letter of intent to play college football with Notre Dame in 1995, Moss
took part in a racially charged fight at his high school that left one person hospitalized.[13] On
March 23, 1995, Moss had backed a friend in a hallway fight against a white student who had
allegedly used racist comments towards Randy's friend.[12] Moss was initially charged with a
felony for kicking the student, but it was later reduced to a misdemeanor. On August 1, 1995,
Moss pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to 30 days behind
bars at the South Central Regional Jail in Charleston, West Virginia. He served 3 days in jail
starting that night and would be required to serve the remaining 27 days within the following 18
months, after he completed his freshman year in college.[14] Moss was expelled from DuPont and
completed his education at Cabell Alternative School.[13]

Notre Dame subsequently denied his enrollment application, but this did not stop another high-
profile college football program from giving him a chance. Notre Dame officials suggested he
attend Florida State due to the reputation of its coach, Bobby Bowden, for handling troubled
players.[15]

Freshman (redshirt) (1995)[edit]

Because of his signed letter of intent at Notre Dame, the NCAA considered him a transfer
student to Florida State,[13] so he had to redshirt the 1995 football season.[15]

Freshman season (1996)[edit]

In 1996, while serving his 30-day jail sentence in a work-release program from 1995, Moss
tested positive for marijuana, thus violating his probation, and was dismissed from Florida State.
He served an additional 60 days in jail for the probation violation.[15]

Ultimately, Moss transferred to Marshall University, about an hour's drive from his home.
Because Marshall was then a Division I-AA school, NCAA rules allowed him to transfer there
without losing any further eligibility. In 1996, he set the NCAA Division I-AA records for the
most games with a touchdown catch in a season (14), most consecutive games with a touchdown
catch (13), most touchdown passes caught in a season (28 tying Jerry Rice's 1984 record), and
most receiving yards gained by a freshman in a season (1,709 on 78 catches), a record which still
stands. Moss was also the leading kickoff returner in Division I-AA on the season, with 612 total
yards and a 34.0 yard average. Marshall went undefeated and won the Division I-AA title in its
last season before moving to Division I-A.

At the Southern Conference indoor track championships, he ran the 200 metres in 21.15 seconds,
missing the conference record by only .02 seconds.[16] Despite the fact that he did not race
competitively for four years, his time of 21.15 seconds was one of the best in the country that
year.[17]

Sophomore season (1997)[edit]

In the 1997 season, Marshall's first in Division I-A, Moss and future New York Jets quarterback
Chad Pennington were the centerpiece of an explosive offense that led the Thundering Herd to
the Mid-American Conference title. Moss caught 26 touchdown passes that season, at the time a
Division I-A record, and was a first-team All-American.[18]

The first game of the season was at West Virginia University where Marshall lost. The second
game of the season saw Moss pick up right where he left off in 1996. Facing Army, Moss caught
5 balls for 186 yards and two touchdowns.[19] One touchdown went for 79 yards in which
Pennington lobbed the ball down the left sideline. Moss leaped over an Army defender to snag
the ball out of the air at the 40-yard line while the safety crashed into his teammate, knocking
both men down. Moss galloped the last 50 yards untouched for the score. The other touchdown
reception was his career long of 90 yards that came on a short screen pass on third down. Moss
caught the ball on the right side of the field at his own 8-yard line, ran past 3 defenders in the
middle of the field at the 15-yard line, hurdled two defenders coming from both sides of the left
hash marks at the 25-yard line, then raced past the last defender at the 50-yard line before finally
seeing daylight down the left sideline.

A week later, Moss posted his third career 200+ yard receiving game, against Kent State. Two
weeks after that was his fourth and final 200+ yard game in college, recording 13 catches for 205
yards and a Marshall single-game record of 5 touchdown receptions against Ball State.[19]

In the 1997 Ford Motor City Bowl against Ole Miss, Moss added his 26th touchdown of the
season on Marshall's first offensive play from scrimmage. He streaked down the right sideline
and caught an 80-yard touchdown pass from Pennington to tie the score at 77.[20] NCAA rules at
the time did not allow for statistics from bowl games to be combined with regular season stats, so
the touchdown did not officially increase his season touchdown record. The two teams traded the
lead several times in the fourth quarter before Ole Miss running back Deuce McAllister scored
on a 1-yard touchdown run with 31 seconds to play, giving them a 3431 lead. Trying to pull out
a last-second win, Pennington connected with Moss on a 40-yard pass on the final play of the
game, but he was stripped of the ball as time expired. Moss finished the game with 6 receptions
for 173 yards.

Moss finished his career at Marshall having scored at least one touchdown in all 28 games that
he played.[20] He won the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the nation's leading wide receiver, and was a
finalist for the 1997 Heisman Trophy (finishing fourth in the balloting, behind Ryan Leaf, Peyton
Manning, and Charles Woodson, who won the award).