Randy Moss vs Jerry Rice: One question proves who’s the best

Former Minnesota Viking Randy Moss will enter the Hall of Fame Saturday, August 4. As a first-ballot inductee, was Moss even better than Jerry Rice?

As Randy Moss prepares to don the gold jacket of the NFL Hall-of-Fame, I’d like to make one more argument for him being the best wide receiver in NFL history.

I did not say ‘greatest’. Greatness is an overused word for a higher argument. For example, I consider Walter Payton to be the greatest football player I’ve ever seen, but not the best running back.

‘Best’ is defined as:
1) As an adjective: of the most excellent, effective, or desirable type or quality.
2) As a noun: that which is the most excellent, outstanding, or desirable.

So let me make the argument very simply. Does anyone remember the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the giant Arab assassin brandishes his great curved sword to Jones, ready to chop him to pieces? Then, Indy whips out a pistol and takes him out with one shot?

Okay. Keep that in mind.

Imagine a symposium of the NFL’s greatest coaches. Vince Lombardi, Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, and finally, Bill Walsh.

Ask them–in a hypothetical retrospect–who they would choose if they had one choice of ONE wide receiver to put on their team, Jerry Rice or Randy Moss. They can’t have both.

Let them judge by ten years of performance, rookie season to age 30, but put both men at their prime athletic age of, say, 22-25.

All team variables are constant. This means the quarterback is someone like Rich Gannon or Daunte Culpepper. Neither receiver has ever played with either quarterback, and the season starts in a few months. The ‘team’ has a good running game, good defense, good special teams, or, if you’d like, is poor in all three regards.

I truly believe that each one of those coaches hardly hesitates (except Mr. Walsh, who is slightly reluctant) before answering:

“Randy Moss.”

Thank you, good night.