MINNEAPOLIS — An hour before the Minnesota Vikings kicked off against the Chicago Bears on Monday night, I conducted a test.
Upon walking onto the main concourse at U.S. Bank Stadium, into a sea of Vikings fans filing in to cheer on a team fighting for the No. 1 seed in the NFC, how long would it take for me to spot a No. 84 jersey? Randy Moss has been retired for 12 years. He has not worn purple since an ill-fated second marriage with the Vikings lasted four games in 2010.
And still, the stopwatch on my iPhone made it to just 10.10 seconds before the first sighting. As has been the case for most Vikings home games, there were some Adrian Peterson 28s, some Fran Tarkenton 10s and Cris Carter 80s dotting the crowd. But the one alumni jersey that far outnumbered the rest was Moss’s 84. Dozens and dozens of them, on the backs of some with gray hair atop their heads. Some were too young to have ever seen him play live. They were women and men, boys and girls, Super Freaks, all of them.
When David Wilkey pulled one of more than a half-dozen Moss jerseys out of his closet — yes, he even has Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers editions — the 35-year-old did so with a greater purpose in mind.
The Hall of Fame receiver may not have been on the ESPN set as usual, but he was still front and center on “Monday Night Football,” a stage that he just loved to dance on as a player. Last week, he announced he was being treated for cancer in the bile ducts near his pancreas and liver and that he was stepping away from his duties as an analyst while facing it down.
The news spread through Viking land like a thunderbolt. The most iconic Viking of the modern era — the man who told his quarterback to just “throw it up above his head. They can’t jump with me, gollll-ee!” — was suddenly more human than anyone thought he could be, tearing up on television and Instagram as he informed the public of the battle he has been fighting.
“I never care about celebrity health issues or deaths or anything like that. But then you hear it’s Moss, and it’s just, oh man,” Wilkey said as he headed to his seats with friend Dylan Kisselman, also decked out in a Moss jersey. “People our age, they love football and they love the Vikings because of Randy Moss.”
As the two friends soaked up the electric atmosphere in the building before the Vikings took on the Bears, Kisselman had one thought.
“This is a Moss kind of night,” he said. “This would’ve been three catches for 150 and three TDs.”
Kisselman had to settle for seven catches for 73 yards and one score from Justin Jefferson, the latest in a long line of sterling wide receivers to wear purple. The 30-12 victory was not as explosive as many of those back in Moss’ day, but no one will complain about a workmanlike performance that moved Minnesota to 12-2 and put the team in the thick of the race for the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
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The entire night served both as a celebration of this unlikely contender and a reminder that Moss is far from forgotten. When Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell got word of Moss’ diagnosis, he immediately knew the organization had to let 84 know that it had his back. Carter and Jake Reed, Moss’ wingmen on the famed “Three Deep” Vikings receiver corps, were in town this week, so O’Connell called and asked them to help send a message to their brother.
Carter and Reed were honorary captains for the divisional matchup, and as they walked to the center of the field for the coin toss, they held a purple No. 84 jersey aloft.
Former Vikings WRs Cris Carter and Jake Reed held a Randy Moss jersey as they walked onto the field 💜
Moss recently revealed he was diagnosed with cancer.
🎥 @Vikings pic.twitter.com/1ZpnZ6q73R
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 17, 2024
“They gave Jake the jersey,” Carter said as he stood next to Reed in the tunnel leading onto the field just before the start of the second half. “Jake and I were thinking what we were going to do, and we decided to hold it up because he’s meant so much to both of us as far as our football lives are concerned. And regardless of how great you were, this game brings you down to (humbling) circumstances that we’re all very mortal.”
Randy Moss? Mortal? No way. Not to these fans. Not to those whose earliest football memories were of 84 streaking down the field and dominating the competition.
“I was 6 years old in 1998, and that was the first year I remember watching football with my dad,” said Brady Severson, a 32-year-old sporting a purple 84. “He was my favorite player from the second I started watching football. He’s the GOAT.”
Jefferson was born in 1999, one year after Moss fell to the Vikings in the first round of the draft. The two have spoken often over the years as Jefferson has put up numbers to rival one of the best to ever do it. When Jefferson caught a 7-yard score in the first quarter, he made a heart sign with his hands, stared into the camera and hollered to make sure one of his heroes could hear him.
“We love you, Randy!” Jefferson said. “That’s for you!”
That one is for you, @RandyMoss 💜💛#LetsMossCancer pic.twitter.com/uG31Zqkx8G
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 17, 2024
“Definitely gotta show that love to him,” Jefferson said, adding that he had texted Moss some well-wishes after hearing of his diagnosis. “Grateful for what he has done for this game and what he has done for me as a kid, just watching him and being a fan of him. Always gotta show love to him.”
This is what O’Connell wanted for his former teammate. The two spent a season together in New England. Like so many of Moss’ teammates, O’Connell was taken by his West Virginia drawl, his intelligence and his disarming personality. When Vikings alumni come through town to visit, O’Connell said he always asks those who played with Moss about their experiences.
“We’re behind him every step of the way,” O’Connell said. “We care about him and love him and we just wanted to do whatever we could with the platform of ‘Monday Night Football.’ Hopefully, he was watching and if it gave him any joy at all, it was well worth it because that’s how we feel about him.”
Oh, he was watching.
LUV U ALL!#letsmosscancer https://t.co/925w4LJhNN
— Randy Moss (@RandyMoss) December 17, 2024
Moss has never stopped watching the purple. Though he also played for Oakland, New England, Tennessee and San Francisco, Minnesota has always held a prime position in his heart.
It was 26 years ago that Moss burst onto the scene during a record-setting rookie season, catching 17 touchdown passes and delivering an adrenaline shot to the heart of a stagnant franchise. The transformation was immediate. Before Moss, the Vikings struggled to sell out home games in the old Metrodome. Once Moss arrived, it turned into Wrestlemania every Sunday or Monday night, with “Welcome to the Jungle” pummeling the eardrums and bombs to Moss filling the Teflon roof-covered sky.
In seven seasons in Minnesota (from 1998 to 2004), Moss revolutionized the way teams played defense, established himself as one of the most frightening talents to ever wear a uniform and coined the phrase “Moss’d” to describe his ability to snatch the ball out of the air — and the soul out of a defensive back who never looked so small as when the 6-foot-4 Moss was sonning him.
In some ways, these 2024 Vikings share something in common with that 1998 group.
• Both teams faced uncertainty at quarterback. In 1998, Randall Cunningham was believed to be past his prime when he stepped in for the injured Brad Johnson, only to put together an MVP-caliber season. In 2024, journeyman Sam Darnold replaced the departed Kirk Cousins and has delivered his finest season as a pro.
• Neither team had big expectations coming into the season. Few knew Moss would dominate as completely and immediately as he did as a rookie. Few expected Brian Flores to construct one of the best defenses in the league after losing Danielle Hunter.
• The 2024 Vikings are not as dynamic as the 1998 version, but they have won seven straight games, are tied with the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles for the best record in the NFC and still have a good chance of earning home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Vikings fans cranked up the volume on Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams on Monday night. They did it to will their team to another much-needed victory. But they also did it to make sure their favorite former player heard them loud and clear.
So many who walked through the doors of U.S. Bank Stadium have similar stories of how Moss turned them into football die-hards.
“I was born in ’94 so I was just old enough to remember watching football, and he was easily my favorite player,” Kisselman said. “The most exciting person to watch. Right away, he just hooked me into football.”
After the Vikings went 15-1 and lost to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship Game following the 1998 season, the team put together a “Three Deep” poster featuring Moss, Carter and Reed. It was omnipresent in kids’ bedrooms in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and one still hangs on the wall at Wilkey’s home.
“I love that poster,” Wilkey said. “My wife wants me to take it down, and I’m like, you don’t understand. Moss made me a Vikings fan.”
When told of the story, Reed smiled wide. He is 57 now, and the news that the 47-year-old Moss was facing such a dire health situation rocked him. When they ran together on the Metrodome turf, they felt invincible. Big, strong, young, dominant athletes who tilted the field to such a degree that it sometimes felt unfair.
Now the biggest, fastest and most dynamic of them all was reeling. And all Reed could do was look around that stadium at all the 84s in the crowd and hope the warmth emanating from them could reach the recovering Moss.
“I wish we could’ve done more, but I know that it’s a private matter. So we just pray for him, let him know if he needs anything that we’re here for him,” Reed said.
“Cris said it best,” Reed continued. “Life can be going great one minute and you can be feeling healthy and then, bam, your world can be crumbling inside. We wanted him to know that the Vikings are with him, the fans are with him and me and Cris are with him also.”
As the Vikings past and present met the Bears’ captains at midfield, Reed held on to the right sleeve of the Moss jersey and Carter the left, making sure those Bears could see the trio that tormented their franchise so often back in the day.
“They were brothers when they were playing and still are. It’s great to see the amount of love they still have for each other,” Jefferson said. “The tribute was amazing. I loved it.”
As referee John Hussey tossed the coin into the air, chants of “Randy! Randy! Randy!” filled the stadium.
When the coin hit the turf, everyone leaned in to see the result. The Vikings won.
(Top photo: Bruce Kluckhohn / Associated Press)
