On the most recent episode of “This is Football,” host Kevin Clark asked former Fox Sports and current Monday Night Football announcer Joe Buck which call in his career would he like to have back.
Buck didn’t hesitate. “The Randy Moss call, for sure…”
The incident Buck is referring to is the mooning touchdown celebration from Moss on January 9, 2005, during a wild card game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers.
After a 284-yard and three-touchdown day from Daunte Culpepper was capped off with a 34-yard Moss touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the then-seventh-year receiver decided that this wound deserved a little more salt.
Moss centered himself next to the goalpost and decided, in front of all the fans at Lambeau Field, to mimic pulling his pants down and mooning the crowd as the Vikings coasted to a 31-17 victory.
Moss would be fined $10,000 for the fine, but the real blowback came in the moment, as Buck let it be known how distasteful of an act that was for the Green Bay faithful.
“That is a disgusting act by Randy Moss! And it’s unfortunate that we had that on our air live! That is disgusting by Randy Moss!”
Fast forward almost 20 years later and Buck admits that he couldn’t understand where that call even came from.
“The more time goes on, the more I think, man, I can’t believe that came out of my mouth…that was too far, and it was not calculated, you never know what you’re going to see when you go into a stadium…”
Now, as time has passed and the situation behind the incident has become clearer, Buck understands that Moss had no ill will towards the fans of Green Bay.
“The irony of it is we were at Fox together for a brief while, we’re at ESPN together, my wife, Michelle, does the pre-game show…of all the people on that pre-game show, the nicest human being to my wife was Randy…knowing more of the backstory after the fact, about the fans and whatever and what they did to the team bus…that was one that I would probably pull back a little bit on.”
Buck is referring to the Green Bay tradition of their fans mooning the team bus as they leave the stadium. His apology seemed to be sincere and everyone makes mistakes, especially during moments filled with as much emotion as a wild-card game between two hated rivals like the Packers and Vikings.
However, without Buck’s call, without the added vitriol that his statement added, we may not have the $10,000 fine that followed. With that, we would be without another legendary Randy-ism.
When Moss was asked about writing the check for the fine, Moss iterated that players like Moss don’t write checks for a measly $10K.
They pay it in “straight cash, homie.”
