The World According to Randy Moss

I grew up in IL (Pekin) and live in IL (Dwight), but in between, I spent 18 year in Minnesota.  There are certain things you acquire a taste for during a long stint in a northern state–things like fleece, down, and the Vikings.  I became a huge fan.  I am suffering through an up and down season (Yeah, like the Bears are always 8-1 this time of the year.  Please!) but some familiar names will always catch my attention.  It didn’t bother me to see Dante Culpepper make his big game-changing mistakes this year, because he no longer wears purple. 

What really caught my attention was a quote from Randy Moss, that former Viking, current Raider, amazingly talented, underachieving wide receiver.  When asked why he was dropping more passes than usual this season, he said, “Maybe because I’m unhappy, and I’m not too much excited about what’s going on, so my concentration and focus level tends to go down when I’m in a bad mood.  So all I can say is if you put me in a good situation and make me happy, man, you get good results.”

Moss has been rightly blasted for these comments on sports radio and newspapers, but is this an unusual attitude?  It’s pretty easy for me to fall in to the “if only…” mentality.  If only I had more staff…  more money…  more people…  more coffee!  If I was in a better situation, I could be a better leader, or a better communicator, or a better whatever.  My name is not blasted by commentators on ESPN when I do this, I just get a little smaller and less effective. 

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