With Hall of Fame father, Redskins’ Thaddeus Moss out to forge his ‘own identity’
Washington Redskins rookie tight close Thaddeus Moss wants to do what any other move-catcher does: create separation. The big difference is he wants separation from his father’s Pro Football Corridor of Fame legacy.
Moss stated he is not worn out of the issues about his past identify and what his father, Randy, achieved as an NFL receiver. But the young Moss wants to create his personal identification.
“I’m just worn out of the comparisons,” he stated. “Everybody keeps mentioning my father, mentioning his past identify, but just the identification I want to make is my personal identification. I seem forward to building a identify for myself.”
The Redskins signed Moss as an undrafted no cost agent out of LSU moments soon after the NFL draft ended. There was a simple explanation Moss picked the Redskins: They have been the initially of three teams to get in touch with, dialing him speedier than Cincinnati and New England.
Moss identified as likely undrafted “a slap in the experience to me.”
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“Acquiring picked kickers and punters, special-teams men getting picked about me, I unquestionably felt some variety of way about it,” he stated. “It is really no big difference. I have usually had to confirm myself my whole lifetime, getting the past identify I have. I usually had to confirm all people erroneous or just confirm myself ideal my whole lifetime.”
Washington presents an prospect for Moss. The Redskins lack a definite starter at the posture but signed veterans Richard Rodgers and Logan Thomas this offseason to pair with yet another vet, Jeremy Sprinkle.
Moss skipped the 2018 period soon after breaking a bone in his foot, but he caught forty seven passes for 570 yards and four touchdowns for LSU in 2019, together with two TDs in the countrywide championship sport in opposition to Clemson. He underwent foot surgical procedures a week soon after the draft, but he hopes to be prepared anytime the Redskins can get back again on the area.
As he viewed the draft with his father, sensing that he wouldn’t be picked, Moss realized what to explain to his father.
“He was sitting down there, not recognizing what to say to me,” Moss stated. “I stated, seem, this is no unique than what I had to do my whole lifetime. The past identify Moss, persons have usually had their eyes on me and usually doubted me. They preferred to see what I can do. They usually have expectations. This is no unique.
“Acquiring the past identify that I have, persons think I was handed a good deal of issues, but it truly is the reverse. People today question me what are pros and downsides, and that’s unquestionably a con to it. But I’m looking forward to the prospect to get the job done for every little thing, and no matter what my NFL career is, you will have to respect it mainly because I worked for every little thing. I wasn’t presented just about anything.”
Even his father, who retired soon after the 2012 period with 982 receptions and 156 touchdowns, built him get the job done. Randy Moss, who was inducted into the Corridor of Fame in 2018, served on the coaching team for his son’s high university, Victory Christian Heart Faculty in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Thaddeus Moss stated his father, now an NFL analyst for ESPN, wasn’t usually “in his ear” with advice but would provide assistance and tips when necessary. Nevertheless, when Randy Moss coached at his son’s university, it meant numerous motor vehicle rides — and football chat.
“The critique I get on television is not gonna be worthy of the critique that I got with him being at the property or being in the motor vehicle collectively,” Thaddeus Moss stated. “I would listen to it from him. So nah, he can only say so a great deal on Tv. I’m not nervous about that.”
Nor is he nervous about any extra focus mainly because of his past identify. He could possibly want his personal identification, but that won’t mean he’d want a unique past identify.
“I embrace it a good deal,” Moss stated. “I have usually had a concentrate on on my back again my whole lifetime growing up. I have grown accustomed to it. You use it as gas.”
