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February 14 marks a special day that Patriots fans (and NFL fans in general) should celebrate with fondness. On this day 46 years ago, Randy Moss was born.
Wait…what did you think I was talking about?
Anyway, Moss’ 46th birthday has people reliving his glory days as arguably the second-best receiver to ever touch an NFL football field and one of the best players of all time. His 156 career passing touchdowns trail only the great Jerry Rice, and one could argue he and Calvin Johnson could duke it out as the most unfairly dominant players the position has ever seen.
Though the first-ballot Hall-of-Famer undoubtedly will be remembered most for his early career with the Minnesota Vikings, Foxborough fans will happily recall that Moss’ best year came as a member of the New England Patriots in 2007.
Coming to the team via a trade with the then-Oakland Raiders for a fourth-round pick (!!), a 30-year-old Moss teamed up with Tom Brady to utterly destroy the NFL. Brady set the then-single season record for passing touchdowns (50) with a record 23 of those scores going to Moss, who eclipsed Jerry Rice for the most receiving touchdowns in a year. That record still stands.
Moss would go on to catch 259 passes for 3,904 yards over parts of four seasons in New England, including helping the Patriots achieve that perfect regular season in 2007. (We won’t talk about the rest.)
His arrival also perhaps marked the transition between “good” Brady, who won three Super Bowls by the point but still hadn’t fully come into his own yet, into the “GOAT” Brady that went on to dominate the NFL basically from that season on.
It’s almost like getting a great talent at wide receiver can really help your quarterback take his career to the next level, am I right?
In all seriousness, there are no Randy Mosses roaming around that the Patriots can sign, draft or trade for this season. He was an absolutely singular player in the annals of league history, after all.
But the overall theory still applies for a franchise who: A.
has a young quarterback in need of some playmakers to throw to, and B. hasn’t seen a receiver anywhere near that awesome since the Patriots traded Moss away in 2010. Elite playmakers make your quarterback better until he can come of age and elevate a team on his own, and the Patriots need to take note of that for their own developing passer in Mac Jones.
And who knows? Maybe there’s a young star out there that can make Patriots fans feel the way they did when they watched Moss embarrass the league as a member of their team.