Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Cats in a Sack

As I was flipping around the radio on my drive in to work yesterday morning, I heard this little bon mot from Cris Carter, describing his onetime teammate, Randy Moss:


"The one thing you have to address with Randy Moss is not a conditioning thing," Carter said on ESPN's "Mike & Mike in the Morning." "It's not an age thing. ... I believe it's the elephant in the room. It's that thing called quit.
"And Randy, not like any other superstar I've met, he has more quit in him than any of those other players. So I need to address that. That's what [Patriots coach Bill] Belichick did when he brought him over from Oakland [in 2007]. He told him he wasn't going to have it. But Randy, when things don't go well, like no other player I've ever been around or associated with, he has a quit mechanism in him that's huge. That needs to be addressed before he signs with any team."


Not surprisingly, Moss wasn't too pleased with that assessment and offered a toxic tweet:

@criscarter80, its sad how u stroked ur own ego when u were suppose to b my mentor!then u wonder why karma bites u in the [expletive]! #goodlukwhof

The hash tag at the end is the knife in the ribs, of course -- Carter has, for reasons that aren't necessarily clear, been scratching on the gate at Canton for the past five years and hasn't made any headway. There have always been odd cases of certain players getting snubbed for no good reason (can I get an amen, Jerry Kramer?), but the case of Carter is an especially curious one.

As a Packers fan this is all amusing, but it's also a reminder of something else -- no matter what else you think of the Vikings and their long-running stadium drama, they have had some remarkably talented people in their organization. It's also a reminder of how boring the current team really is.


5 comments:

Night Writer said...

Cris Carter is right about Moss. It is also true that if CC's mouth had had a little more "quit" in it, he'd be in the HOF.

First Ringer said...

I think Carter's absence from the Hall of Fame is temporary and the product of both his era and dynamics of the NFL's HOF system.

The NFL sets an arbitrary number of inductees every year and fills them no matter what. It also hates doubling up on positions - notice that there haven't been many years where two WRs or scoring position players have made the final cut. MLB & others made the vote strictly on merit and less on direct competition - which frankly makes much more sense (to me, at least).

Carter's prime years were also when the standards for all WRs jumped. 100 receptions a year was no longer much of an accomplishment. Of course, anyone jumping on Carter for his numbers alone must never have watched him play. He seemingly invented the tip-toes sideline catch.

If Carter's mouth is what's keeping him out of the HOF than Michael Irvin would have a restraining order in Canton, not his bust there.

Mr. D said...

Can I agree with both of you, NW and FR? Because I think you both have a point.

Clearly Carter is dealing with being a contemporary of a lot of other receivers with excellent credentials. I'm a Packer fan and I saw plenty of Carter over the years -- he was more of a factor in games than other players who have made the HOF.

I can't prove this, but I've heard that the reason Jerry Kramer isn't in the HOF is that he was considered too much of a media darling in his day and that some folks to this day still resent that. The excuse is that "too many" Packers from that era are already in the HOF, but that really shouldn't matter. Kramer was one of the dominant offensive linemen of his era and was recognized as such at the time.

I do think Carter has some of the same issue. Eventually he'll get in, though. As will Moss.

CousinDan 54915 said...

http://packersnews.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120216/PKR07/120216014/Minnesota-Vikings-Green-Bay-Packers-Green-Bay-Vikings-stadium-Metrodome?odyssey=mod|mostview

This is classic.

Mr. D said...

Dan, that's hilarious.