Watch Randy Moss learn that he’s going to Canton

As we all heard on Saturday night, former Minnesota Vikings’ wide receiver Randy Moss will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this August as part of the Class of 2018. He becomes just the third wide receiver to be voted into the Hall in his first year of eligibility, joining Steve Largent and Jerry Rice in that group.

If you haven’t seen it already, there’s a truly great video of Moss getting a knock on his door to be told that he’s heading to Canton.

I’ll be honest. I’ve said on numerous occasions that if Randy Moss wasn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer, then there shouldn’t be such a thing as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Despite that, however, I’m surprised that the committee managed to get this one right. There are so many voters that seem to be under the impression that they’re voting to put people into the Pro Football Hall of Congeniality, not the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We’ve seen some players get pushed back a bit because of perceived attitude problems, notably Moss’ classmate in the Class of 2018, Terrell Owens.

However, the Hall of Fame Committee saw what everyone in Minnesota saw for the first seven seasons that Randy Moss was in the National Football League, and that’s the fact that he’s truly on the short list of the greatest to ever play the game at the position. Despite not having played for five years, he still sits at #4 in the history of the NFL in receiving yardage (15,292 yards) and second in touchdown receptions (156).

In all the years that I’ve spent watching football, I have never seen a better, more physically gifted wide receiver than Randy Moss. There’s a very good chance that I never will. Moss could do things that no other receiver, even some of his fellow greats, could do. . .and he did it all while, apparently, half-assing it. Well, if you ask people that watched Randy Moss play, at the most, twice a year and are still angry that their team passed on him in 1998 to draft Vonnie Holliday, anyhow.

Honestly, though, you’d be angry, too.

It’s nice to see Moss get his moment, and even nicer to see it captured on video. The only thing that could make all of this even more perfect is if Dennis Green were still here to give Moss the sort of introduction to his induction speech that only Green could give.

But, even absent that, it’s still going to be great to see Randy Moss get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Unlike with Cris Carter, we’re never going to have to ask how many times he’ll get passed over before he finally gets in, and it’s great that the voters could see past any pettiness and put him into the Hall on his first attempt.