Moss and Brady, Together at Last

I actually laughed out loud. The idea, the very idea, tickles me. The most over-hyped, over-credited QB in the game is going to be throwing to the most vilified WR out there.

Tom Brady meet Randy Moss.

On the surface, the trade is win-win-win-win. Brady gets a supremely talented target. Moss gets out of a quagmire in Oakland. Oakland gets rid of a disgruntled, underproductive player. New England gets a top receiver while giving up virtually nothing.

Of course, though, with a mercurial wide receiver in the mix, there is a lot more to the story. Will Moss shake his reputation as a selfish, me-first player? Or will his tempermental diva demeanor disrupt the Pats chemistry? Can the Patriots, with Moss on board, challenge the Colts to regain their place as the AFC's top team?

In any case, I'll be watching. Because, here's what I find so amusing - this trade presents quite the pickle for the NFL commentators. With Brady, the media fawns. They fall all over themselves to elevate the guy to demigod status, chatting up his football smarts, his big game wins, his supreme team-first selflessness. With commercials and endorsements second only to Peyton Manning's death grip on Madison Avenue, Brady is a golden boy. Any other player dumps his knocked-up fiancee for a supermodel and he'd be crucified in the press. Brady? Well, these things happen. He is untouchable. Moss on the other hand? The Sunday afternoon talking heads have decided he is the worst thing for football since OJ Simpson. Stunts and soundbites that would have been dismissed as entertaining hyperbole from, say, Terrell Owens, are seized upon as evidence of game-threatening bad attitude. Moss 'moons' the fans in Green Bay and Fox falls all over themselves to decry his desecration of the game of football. Moss walks off the sidelines with 30-seonds to go in a blow-out game, and rather than being seen as evidence of his hatred of losing, the move is considered to be abandonment of his noble teammates on the field of battle. Soldiers have been shot for less.

So, does the media stay on the Tom Brady bandwagon, or jump off because it will now be sullied by the presence of the hated Moss?

For me, I like Moss. I think he's incredibly talented and has been punished for his refusal to play ball with the media. He's tremendously entertaining when he wants to play. And under Belichick. I'm guessing he's going to really want to play. At least until November or so. This could be fun.