Colts coach Tony Dungy was on the late news a little while ago. He had a different viewpoint on Randy Moss’s pretended mooning of the crowd at Green Bay after he scored a touchdown. He said when the Green Bay Packers win at home, some of the fans hang around in the parking lot. When the losing visitors’ bus leaves, the fans moon the bus. Tony said he has seen it nine times when his teams lost at Green Bay. He said Randy Moss has probably experienced it, too, and his act was a reply.
Up front: I have little use for Randy Moss, and have generally been predisposed to think of him as a jerk. I wouldn’t want him on my team, no matter how good he is (and when healthy, he’s VERY good!)
That said, I thought that in THIS particular case, the media overreacted. Moss was being silly, but not obscene. When a receiver does stupid things like this, my reaction is almost always the same: “If you don’t like opposing players doing stunts like that, STOP them! DOn’t let them in the end zone, and this won’t happen.” To me, this latest Moss stunt was a bit irritating, but nothing worth getting outraged over.
And now that I’ve heard Tony Dungy’s explanation (and Dungy is the type of old-school, classy guy who’d never defend vulgarity for its own sake), I’m even more inclined to say “Moss was just giving Green Bay fans a mild taste of their own medicine. Lighten up.”
Like astorian, I don’t see getting seriously upset at Randy Moss’s behavior. And I would put a lot of faith in Tony D’s account.
But if the limit on player behavior is going to be what drunken fans do after a game, we can probably expect things a bit more provocative than pantomime moonings.
I wasn’t offended, and I think the media is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.
However, it does reinforce my pre-existing opinion that Randy Moss is a classless individual.
I slightly misquoted Dungy. He said he had seen the GB fans’ ritual 7, not 9, times.