Controversy King Bombarded With Criticism for Touchdown Celebration

For the second consecutive week the Minnesota Vikings are talking about the actions of wide receiver Randy Moss, instead of their 31-17 wild card win against the Green Bay Packers.

After scoring his second touchdown early in the fourth quarter, Moss went right towards the end zone goalpost, turned his back the crowd at Lambeau Field, bent down and faked like he was pulling down his pants.

“Just having a little fun with the boys,” Moss told Fox NFL Sunday sideline analyst Chris Myers after the game, according to a Fox Sports online report. “I hope I don’t get in trouble by it, but if I do I’ll take the heat.”

Moss took a lot of heat the week prior when he walked to the locker room as the Vikings were setting up for an onside kick in the closing seconds of their season finale 21-18 loss to the Washington Redskins.

After the game, the team leaders, center Matt Birk and quarterback Daunte Culpepper confronted Moss about his actions.

When Moss mooned the Green Bay fans this past Sunday, Birk just shook his head. “That’s Randy,” he said. “You take the good with the bad.”

ESPN decided to take the good, so they did not replay Moss’s second touchdown reception on the highlights of Sportscenter. “In the end, we decided a conservative approach, taking a breath rather than rushing to air would be prudent,” said ESPN spokesperson Josh Kruelwitz.

Moss, who did not comment on the incident Monday, has been no stranger to controversy.

In his second season in the NFL, Moss, according to a report from Fox Sports.com, received a penalty of $25,000 for squirting an NFL official with a water bottle. In 2001, Moss was fined $15,000 by the Vikings for his disrespectful verbal actions towards corporate sponsors on the team bus. In 2002 he was fined $1,200 by a judge because he bumped his car into a traffic officer in the downtown area of Minneapolis.

Tony Dungy, Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts saw Moss’s actions as amusing. “Randy has had about six or seven years of those guys mooning him as he’s left after a loss and I think that was his way of saying, ‘OK, appreciate the fun, you guys had your fun, here’s a little shout back at you.’ That’s what that was all about,” Dungy said, according to Fox Sports.com.

Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon had a totally different opinion. “I don’t need to see Moss rubbing his butt on the goal post to stick it to the Green Bay fans after a touchdown,” Wilbon said in his column in Monday’s Washington Post. “It’s moronic.”

To a couple of Minnesota natives and students at Howard University, they felt that the stunt Moss pulled was no different than any other NFL player.

“I thought it no different from when a football player makes a touchdown and jumps into the crowd or does a dance,” said Alyssa Joy Johnson, sophomore journalism/advertising major from North Minneapolis, MN.

To South Minnesota native Daniel Shannon, the NFL should fine Moss for his actions, but it should be done for a certain reason. “I think it is important that they (NFL) fine him for the actual offense and not because he is Randy Moss,” the sophomore economics major.  

Even if he gets fined or not, Randy Moss has garnered a reputation where all his negatives acts discouraged all the good things he does on the football field.