pft: MOSS ADDRESSES NEAR-MISS WITH PACKERS

[twenty-eight]

POSTED 9:35 p.m. EST, January 30, 2008

MOSS ADDRESSES NEAR-MISS WITH PACKERS

Last year, at about this time, rumors began to surface that Packers quarterback Brett Favre wanted the team to acquire Randy Moss. Though Favre never said anything publicly to pressure the team to pursue Moss, it was believed that Favre was working behind the scenes to make it happen -- and that Favre at one point was convinced that Moss was coming to Green Bay.

On Wednesday, Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

asked Moss about the situation. And Moss explained that, indeed, there was a chance that the man who once pretended to moon the fans at Lambeau Field would return wearing green and gold.

"Green Bay was in the picture, but the things told to me about maneuvering money around and making it a good fit -- the Packers were really talking a lot about the wrong things, not the right things.

"When they started talking about the wrong things I hung the phone up and didn't want to talk to them anymore. I thought about it. It was something that could work out just for the fact Brett Favre was there, but I think as the conversation continued throughout the day and the next day, I really didn't want to go to Green Bay."

Moss apparently didn't like the fact that the Packers were applying conditions to his possible tenure with the team.

"It was like they were telling me that they're going to take a chance on me, but if you do come here these are the things you have to work out, 'Be on your best behavior. Donald Driver is the top receiver here so don't come in there trying to step on his toes,' things like that. I didn't think that was right because my whole career things have been taken out of [context] at times, but at the end of the day all I wanted to do was win games. It's hard to win games. . . . I don't feel they really wanted me. Brett wanted me, but I don't thing [sic] the Packers' organization wanted me."

The Packers probably didn't want Moss. Sure, Favre did. But it isn't G.M. Ted Thompson's style to pursue a guy like Moss. Though the front office had to remove the stick from Favre's fanny after Moss went to New England, both teams had solid seasons. Besides, the Packers are solid at the receiver position -- they wouldn't have been that much better with Moss, and they'll be better off without him moving forward given the development of guys like Greg Jennings and James Jones.