Anyone who follows the National Football League knows that Randy Moss has had a rather interesting career. There’s no denying his immense talent, yet he’s run himself out of two NFL cities thus far, and it’s beginning to look like it’ll be a third.

Saturday night, Moss made some very interesting comments regarding his future with the New England Patriots. As reported by both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, Moss stated the following: “If they want to give me a new contract I would entertain that, but I don’t really think that I’m going to be a New England Patriot next year. So, I’ll play this year out and then look for whatever the future is next.”

To me, this is what’s wrong with professional sports. Players are constantly in contact with the media, and able to voice every single little displeasure they have with an individual or team. Moss was at a charity football event when these remarks were made. I’m not saying Randy Moss shies away from attention, but in the middle of the offseason, he’s just stirring up a little conversation for the water cooler, and more importantly, in the New England front office.

This upcoming season, we’re going to see Randy Moss in two all-important fashions. The first will be the purely gifted wide receiver that he is, able to change a game simply with his presence and abilities. The second is far less desirable, and that’s the Moss who gives up on his teammates and himself. One poor game where he isn’t targeted enough or doesn’t like the play-calling, and Moss will shut himself down, and look to the next chapter in his career.

It’s unfortunate that a player of his skill level is such a hassle. If only he would give the NFL and its fans another season like 2007, in which he set the single season mark for receiving touchdowns. But it is Randy Moss, and he has been in New England for a few years now. He needs to wear out his welcome, alienate himself, and move on to whichever team thinks he may be different in their market. My advice? A one year contract.

TWO POINT CONVERSION

- 59 days left until the NFL Draft

- the NFL let Bryant McKinnie off too easily. He only has to pay back just over $4,200  for skipping the Pro Bowl, plus forfeit his $22,500 game cheque. He should be suspended for at least two games. He embarrassed the league, and disrespected the fans by simply skipping out on the game. He should have done what all other players do to get out of the Pro Bowl, get an ‘injury’

Is it me or has Ron Wilson picked up where JP Ricciardi left off? Did these two go to the same PR and motivational schools? In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter what the hell the fans think of a coach. It matters even less when they are winning. Every time I read a quote from Ron Wilson lately, I want to strangle the guy, or at the very least stick a sock in his mouth.

“”You have one (expletive) goal in your last 10 games,” Wilson said to Kessel.”

From where I am sitting, there is no problem for a coach to rip one his players in front of his teammates. It’s not my preferred method, embarassing a guy, but lots use it. What I don’t get is doing it within earshot of the entire throng of media hounds hanging around watching practice. I once worked for a real SOB. He constantly reduced people to tears in his office. However outside that office, to the rest of the company, no one would say a bad thing about anyone on his team, he defended everyone like they were his kids. You want to embarrass your star player in front of his teammates, wouldn’t it be smarter to do so behind a closed locker room door?

“”We do it here because I’m pissed off, okay?” he said. “You do need a kick in the rump once in a while. Then we’ll see how people respond.”

You have to believe Wilson rubs his dog in it’s pee when it has an accident. I always thought coaches, including Wilson tried to create an environment of us against the rest of the world. Isn’t is kind of hard to establish that attitude when you treat your players like ass?

“”Actually at the end of the day, you guys shouldn’t even watch us practice,” Wilson said to the assembled scrum on Thursday. “This is the only sport where the media will report what you said to a player on the field of battle. You can’t do it in football, baseball or basketball. How many basketball practices have you ever been to? None.

“This is our office and it should be off-limits.”

i have no problem when guys rail on the press when it is deserved, here the pool did nothing wrong but show up. If Wilson prefers to work in an environment where there is only 1 or 2 writers, there is a league full of cities where he can beg for attention. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the oven.

“”We’ve got to compete harder,” Wilson said to reporters afterwards. “Not compete when we’re down 2-0. Compete from the start. Don’t get going when the score is five- or six-to-one. Compete all the time and consistently. That’s what we’re going to have to do if we want to be a competitive team.”

If the team doesn’t have the commitment to compete, isn’t that an attitude problem? Who is responsible for that attitude? I mean this isn’t Wilson’s first year here. He’s had this group for a while now. His team the other night looked as bad as the bunch did during the Paul Maurice era- which was about as bright as the John Brophy era.

I am curious what Wilson does if Kessel reacts to his lashing the same way Kaberle did to his benching? I mean what if it has a negative effect. What if instead of 10 bad games, Kessel quits on Wilson, says screw you and mails it in? I am not suggesting he will, but what if? I wonder if Wilson discusses these things with Burke et all before lashing out.

I have no problem with Wilson as a coach, I just really prefer he just shut up and coach, that’s all.

TSN’s story on Wilson is here

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Had Brian Burke taken over the Leafs gig two summers ago, then his second offseason would be worth evaluating. Attempting to evaluate Burke today on his one year anniversary is nuts. I mean, the guy may fail, and he may fail miserably, but come on. He started a year ago, just over a quarter into the season. He has had 1 draft and one free agency, one trade deadline, and we are going to write a story entitled “Jury Still out on Burke”. One friggin year and you are drawing conclusions like that? The problem is the article by David Shoalts of the Globe and mail is only bad because it says NOTHING. The title is brutal and totally misleading.

“One of the things Brian Burke promised when he took over as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs was a sea change from the country-club atmosphere that settled over the team in previous years.

With the Burke era officially beginning its second year today with a game against the Buffalo Sabres, opinions are divided about the success of his first year – but most of the critics agree the players work much harder than they did in the past. However, no one should take that as a sign that a change in culture is complete.

True culture change, say those who took on the burden of doing it, takes years, sometimes more than a decade to complete. It takes a lot more than getting rid of a few lazy players who may be a bad influence on their teammates and bringing in some hard-workers.”

Rise your hand if you are care where the Toronto Maple Leafs are after his first year, or after his 5th or 6th. Who is going to spend the time and evaluate him at this point of the season. Let’s at least give him until the end of this season don’t you think?

““If you’re looking at the change to an elite team, it was probably 10 years,” Holland said. “But if you’re talking about going from what was the worst team in the world, as it was in 1985, to a playoff team, then you could say five years.””

Exaclty! So why even bother writing the article in the first place? I mean, if that is the gist of the article, and it is, then why bother. Shoalts makes all the arguments on why these takes time…5 to ten years in some cases, and yet the headline is that jury is out? What did people expect? Burke himself said this was going to be a long process.

“The key to success with youth, Holland said, is patience. That is an issue in Toronto, given defenceman Luke Schenn’s struggles in his second NHL season.

“The odd 18-year-old kid can change the fortunes of your team, but they’re named Gretzky and Lemieux,” Holland said. “For most of them, it takes a long time.

“People think next year you’re going to be twice as good, which is unrealistic. You go home for the summer and think you made it after your first year, plus your buddies are telling you, too. So, it is not until your second off-season that you hit the gym a lot harder than you did after the first year.”

I love that the Red Wings are again the blueprint of success. No one ever would have guessed that this would be the model of success years back. I remember when they were giving away cars at the JLA in attempt to get people to come to the arena. If they are the model, then shouldn’t others be afforded the same time to follow it? Let’s see Burke try to draft the same way Illitch’s team did and then we can talk right?

““We’ve got the work ethic, no one can say we don’t,” he said. “But we don’t have the talent like a team like the Red Wings. We don’t have a leader here who is out there doing the right thing all the time, a genuine Stevie Yzerman or Nicklas Lidstrom.

“[Yzerman] wasn’t regarded as a leader until he was about 10 years into his career. He got the captaincy early, but it was Scotty Bowman who basically brought it out of him and that took three or four years. That’s why if it’s Luke Schenn for us, it’s going to take three or four years.”

Exactly the point. So why the headline, and the intro to the article? Shoalts hit a homerun on the Coyotes. On the Leafs he seems to be striking out an awful lot lately.

Talk to you from Las Vegas

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

You have to pardon my lack of enthusiasm for the good ship Maple Leafs these days. I have to admit that their on ice performance and more so results has got me a tad bit apathetic. More so, the coverage of the team has done nothing to excite me. I know it seems a little bit odd to say it but I miss the days when the Leafs were getting carved for everything they did…

When those who used to bash them all the time, are telling us that things aren’t as bleak as they appear, well, where the hell is the fun in that? I watched a good part of last night’s game tonight and was left with the conclusion that there are 3 players on the Maple Leafs that are potential difference makers.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, I mean how big an idiot would I be not to mention Phil Kessel? That being said, he is the one guy on the Leafs team who you noticed every time he was on the ice. When little TSM plays, there is always one guy on every team who is eons ahead of the rest of the team. Kessel is that guy on the Leafs. There is no one who compares with his speed of talent- no one close. The hope and I do mean hope is that Kadri resides somewhere in the same zip code.

The second is Gustavsson. He stands tall has a presence and despite only playing in a few games, he has earned the confidence of his teammates. Yes he has made mistakes. What he hasn’t done is let in the crap goal at the most inopportune time as Toskala always seems to manage to do. As Gustavsson’s plays goes, so too will the fate of this team.

Lastly is Kaberle. The guy who I said they had to deal last summer is playing out of his head. He, is eons ahead of the rest of the pack on defence right now. There is no one playing at his level.

The problem is, that the drop off from those three is gigantic. Brian Burke talked about having his skill guys and then his plumbers- a top group and a bottom group. Right now the distance to getting to that point appears to be huge. The fall off from Kaberle to the next defenceman is amazing. What’s more unbelievable is that the next best guy, in my opinion is Ian White! The guy who didn’t dress early next season. Here is a guy who doesn’t have a ton of talent but works his ass off every shift. The drop in forwards is worse. There isn’t one guy right now who can score. After Kessel went 0-10 last night (and I am not knocking him), who is left to score the goals? i have confidence in no one.

A friend emailed me last night that the Maple Leafs are 19 players away. You have to laugh. The alternative is much worse isn’t it? I don’t know why it has happened but the skill level, especially upfront is embarrassing. Grabovsky, Blake, Stajan, Hagman are all, for the most part totally infective. You have to think that at some point relatively soon it will make sense to bring the college kids up and let them go. I mean last year Luke Schenn played well when he was getting tons of minutes. Why not say to Hanson and Bozak (who may or may not have had h1n1 flu) guys, go out there and play as hard as you can and don’t worry about screwing up- I will still throw you out there again. It’s pretty much what Wilson did last year with Schenn. I can tell you this as a fan, I would be much more interested in watching those guys then the aforementioned group now. I watch the current group and I just get angry. At least if they were kids, you would be patient, feel that there is a system in place etc.

So….Burke has a foundation of 3. Kadri, as pathetic as it sounds right now is the great hope to get to 4. It’s no wonder Burke has been so quiet of late, the magnitude of the job ahead has to be incredibly daunting.

You have to love the television business… Sportsnet drew huge numbers for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning game last night. It was in the top 10 most watched events in Sportsnet’s history. So, what does David Akande say? ““This number proves once again that Sportsnet is the destination for hockey that matters. Whether it is for the pre-game show, intermissions
or the game itself, we are the home for the Toronto Maple Leaf fan.”

Classic! Hell, this game could have been on Rogers 10 and it would have drawn the number. I think what Akande meant was thank you Phill and the entire Maple Leafs training and medical staff for getting him back so early as otherwise we would be shitting bricks.

Meanwhile, one has to wonder about the pressures and limitations on writers for the MSM. I say that because when you read Bill Houston’s blog these days, he is a lot more daring than he used to be while writing for the Globe and Mail. Case in point:

” Don’t take it personally, Bruce. Avery trashes everybody. Besides, you are fat. And if Avery motivated you to lose a few pounds, that’s a good thing.”

No, “Bruce” doesn’t refer to the author of “off the post”, rather it is referring to the head coach of the Washington Capitals. Boudreau was apparently taken back by Sean Avery’s comments about Boudreau’s weight.

Am I alone in thinking that now that Houston is out from under the Globe and Mail he is going to be a lot more candid than he was before. For some reason I just can’t see him calling Bruce Boudreau fat while writing his old column. A refreshing change to say the least. I guess he subscribes to the truth hurts philosophy.

Lastly, I am sure i am in the minority here, however i don’t think it’s that big a deal if some professional athletes got their H1N1 shots ahead of the rest of us. To be honest I kind of expected it. Oh, and I think what David Branch did today took enormous balls. I would have preferred it if he had tossed the Erie coach as well. Branch’s rationale was that players lack the respect and that is why the injury took place (combined with the current health of the victim). Well, if a player skates 40-50ft at breakneck speed and pulverizes another player, one has to think that part of that follows the coaching philosophy of the team. I feel for the kid who got suspended- but not nearly as much as I do for the victim or his family.

TSM

@yyzsportsmedia

Houston is here

Sometimes a sign says it all. Coors, the brewer of perhaps the worst beer every made (Old Milwaukee and Steeler included) is running a that campaign throughout British Columbia. I didn’t realize folks in BC had a Toronto complex, must be something new since Sundin hung out in Whistler instead of practicing with his teammates over the all star break.

Yes, this is true, yes i know that we didn’t “send” Sundin to Vancouver, YES this is tongue in cheek (all but the ad part).

photo from Mike Boon’s photostream at Flickr.