Randy Moss, born February 13, 1977 in Rand West Virginia. His parents are Maxine Moss and Randy Pratt. He has a sister whose name is Lutisia and a brother Eric.  Eric was an offensive lineman with the Vikings for a very brief time.Randy and his girlfriend Libby Offutt, have two daughters(Sydney and Senali) and two sons(Thaddeus and Montigo). Randy is a wide receiver for the New England Patriots. The Patriots are one of the NFL’s top franchises. Randy was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1998, and played in Minnesota from 1998 until 2005, where he was traded to the Oakland Raiders.  He played two seasons in Oakland, and then on April 29, 2007 Randy was traded to the New England Patriots for a fourth round draft pick.

During Randy’s high school days, at Dupont High School(now Riverside High School), in Belle West Virginia, he led his school to the state AAA football title(highest level), and was a basketball star, with current Miami Heat point guard Jason Williams. Randy also won the state title in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Moss also played center field in baseball which  arguably was his best sport. One professional baseball scout was quoted as saying “He has the most range in the field that I have ever seen.” He played wide receiver, safety, punter, place kicker, kick returner, and punt returner in football. He finished his high school football career with 109 catches, 2,435 receiving yards, and 44 receiving touchdowns, along with 75 rushes for 843 yards and nine touchdowns. He ended his basketball career at DuPont with 1,713 points scored. He was named the state’s Athlete of the Year once in football and twice in basketball.Along with his State Athlete of the Year awards, Moss was named to USA Today’s All-USA high school football team in 1994, and to USA Today’s 20th anniversary All-USA high school football team.

Randy always had a dream to play for Notre Dame, but also wanted to go to Ohio State, where his half brother Eric, played offensive tackle. Former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz was once quoted as saying  Moss was “the greatest high school athlete I had ever seen. Moss originally signed a letter of intent to play at Notre Dame in 1995. But then Randy took part in a racially-charged fight at his high school that left one person hospitalized. He entered a plea of guilty to battery, and received probation along with a 30-day suspended jail sentence. After the incident, Notre Dame then revoked his scholarship, but this did not stop other programs from giving Randy a chance. Randy then signed at Florida State, but was considered a transfer student, and was forced to sit out a year. In 1996,  while serving his 30-day jail sentence in a work-release program from 1995, Moss tested positive for smoking marijuana,  thus violating his probation, and was let go by Florida State. He served an additional 60 days in jail for the probation violation. Ultimately, Moss transferred to Marshall University, about an hour’s drive from his home. Because Marshall was then a Division I-AA school, NCAA rules allowed him to transfer there without losing any further eligibility. In 1996, he set the NCAA Division I-AA records for most games with a touchdown catch in a season (14), most consecutive games with a touchdown catch (13), most touchdown passes caught by a freshman in a season (29), and most receiving yards gained by a freshman in a season (1709 on 78 catches), a record which still stands. Moss was also the leading kickoff returner in Division I-AA on the season, with 484 total yards and a 34.6 yard average. Marshall went undefeated and won the Division I-AA title in its last season before moving to Division I-A. In the 1997 season, Marshall’s first in Division I-A, Moss and current New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington were the centerpiece of an explosive offense that led the Thundering Herd to the Mid-American Conference title. Moss caught 25 touchdown passes that season, at the time a Division I-A record, and was a first-team All-American. For the season, he had 96 receptions for 1820 yards, and 26 touchdowns. He won the Fred Biletnikoff Award  as the nation’s leading wide receiver, and was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy(finishing fourth in the balloting, behind Ryan Leaf, Peyton Manning, and Charles Woodson. Moss left Marshall with 168 receptions for 3,467 yards and a school record 53 touchdowns.