I don't get the guys having Moss 4 or lower but to each their own I guess.
On 2nd thought, I think I do get it, people don't like him and it affects their judgement.
I got no hate for Moss. He's a doucher, but I'm not a 12 year old boy; I don't need my professional athletes to be idols or role models. Ben Roethlisberger is my favorite QB, and he's a much, much bigger doucher than Moss ever was. I just like the way he plays, and I like the way Moss plays, too. He's probably the most fun WR to watch that I've ever personally seen (although those old Alworth highlights are a thing of beauty, too). Calling him the 4th best WR of all time is not a knock on Moss at all. It's simply a recognition that Jerry Rice is so many standard deviations above the mean that no one will ever catch him. It's a recognition that Lance Alworth's peak was the most dominant of any WR ever. It's a recognition that Hutson basically invented the WR position and put up numbers 70 years ago that look cartoonish even by today's standards. These guys are giants of NFL history, as is Randy Moss. Even the shortest giant is still a giant. The case for Rice hardly needs to be recounted, but for those less familiar with the old-timers, here's the case for Alworth and Hutson:
Hutson- literally invented the concept of routes. Prior to Hutson, receivers just ran around randomly trying to get open. At his retirement, stood even further above his peers than Jerry Rice. Put up 74/1211/17... In 11 games... In 1942. That'd be 108/1761/25 in 16 games. His receiving TD record stood for 42 years, until Clayton managed 18 TDs during Marino's record-setting 1984 campaign. His yardage total is still one of the top 10 per-game marks in history. He's basically football's version of Babe Ruth- era-adjusting his stats pretty much breaks the system, because he was playing the game of the future while everyone else was still stuck in the past. Led the league in receptions 8 times, yards 7 times, receiving TDs 9 times,
total TDs 7 times (something Rice only managed twice), was an 8-time All Pro, and was a 2-time MVP. All in an 11-year career.
Alworth- in three consecutive seasons, put up ypg marks that still stand among the top 20 of all time. For perspective, there's only one other player with three such seasons in the top FIFTY (Andre Johnson, with the 34th, 41st, and 42nd best marks all-time). And while Johnson is a noted yardage hog who has never scored double digit TDs, Alworth led the league in
total tds in each of those three consecutive seasons (again, Rice only managed it twice). He put up 42 TDs in 39 games over those 3 years. And he wasn't a short-peak superstar like Sterling Sharpe- his next two seasons after that still rank in the top 80 in ypg. He was a 6-time All Pro. If you took his average game over his 9 years in San Diego and pro-rated it over a 16 game season, he'd put up 1394 yards and 12 TDs at 19.4 ypr- and that was his 9-year average. Like Moss, he had a twilight as a role player on a good team which brought down his career averages, but his per-game numbers in San Diego are arguably the greatest of all time.
Moss had the best physical skill-set of any WR, but his intangibles were lacking. So, Rice is clearly the better of the two.
Calvin has the best physical skill-set of any WR.
