Randy Moss, one of the game’s most decorated wide receivers of the modern era, will retire after 13 seasons, NFL Network insider Michael Lombardi reported Monday, citing the wideout’s agent, Joel Segal.
Moss, who broke Jerry Rice’s single-season record for touchdown receptions in 2007 with 23, caps a career spent with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans.
Moss, selected by the Vikings in the first round of the 1998 draft, scorched opponents right out of the gate as a rookie, catching 69 passes for 1,313 yards and 17 touchdowns.
The six-time Pro Bowler fell from grace in 2010, bouncing from the Patriots, back to the Vikings and then the Titans, but he starred in New England in the three previous years and had been working out relentlessly this summer, according to Segal, who said his client was in “freakish shape.”
Moss had 28 catches for 393 yards and just five touchdowns last season, but he’s far and away the NFL’s leader in touchdown grabs from 2007 to 2010 (Moss has 52; Larry Fitzgerald is next with 41), and just six players have more receptions of 25 yards-plus during that span.
His accomplishments on the football field pepper the record books. He’s fifth in receiving yards (14,858); eighth in receptions (954); and fifth in all-time touchdowns with 154, trailing only Rice, Emmitt Smith, LaDainian Tomlinson and Terrell Owens.
The 34-year-old Moss is tied for eighth in receptions with Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
