Tom Brady has a new story that puts Randy Moss’s Patriots move in a different light.
On a recent appearance on the “New Heights” podcast, Brady said Moss was already making his pitch back in 2006, when the wide receiver was still with the Oakland Raiders. That year, the Vikings met the Patriots in Week 8, and New England rolled to a 31-7 win at Mall of America Field. Brady says Moss then took the next step and came looking for him at the Patriots’ team hotel in Minnesota.
“He showed up, and they are like, ‘Tommy, Randy is here.' So I went and saw him, and he is like, ‘Yo, man, I love the way you play, man.
I want to, like, figure out how to make it happen,' and of course I'm like, ‘Alright, why are you talking to me? It's not like I'm the general manager.'”
Brady wasn’t running the front office, but the message was clear: Moss wanted in. That makes the eventual pairing feel even less like a coincidence and more like a mission that had been building for a while.
Moss didn’t get to New England until the 2007 NFL Draft, when he was traded from the Raiders to the Patriots. Once he arrived, the two sides worked out a contract restructure, and Brady converted some of his cap hit into a bonus to help create room for the star receiver.
The exact behind-the-scenes details may never be fully known, but Brady’s account makes one thing obvious: both men were intent on making the partnership happen.
In Other News...
Kevin OConnell Just Sent A Clear Message About Vikings QB Battle
Kevin OConnells latest comments on the quarterback competition made one thing clear: the Vikings are not looking for a placeholder, they are looking for someone who can establish a winning tone from the start. After a 9-8 season in 2025 and Sam Darnolds departure, Minnesota is trying to sort out who can best guide the offense forward, and the coachs message was less about labels than about results.
J.J. McCarthy remains the intriguing young option after being drafted in 2024, but he still has to prove he can become the kind of steady presence this job demands. OConnells standard is simple enough to understand and hard enough to meet, and it leaves the competition centered on who can do more than just win reps in camp. [Read more 🡒]
These Vikings Games Could Define Kevin OConnells 2026 Season
Kevin OConnells first four completed seasons in Minnesota have already given the Vikings a pretty clear pattern: when the roster hits, the team can beat the number, and when it doesnt, the margin for error disappears fast. The Vikings cleared preseason expectations in 2022 and 2024, fell short in 2023, and then finished 2025 a little above the projection after a rough opening stretch, which is why the early read on 2026 feels familiar.
Once again, the projection sits around 8.5 wins, and once again the real question is whether Minnesota can turn a decent baseline into something more meaningful. The season may end up being decided by a small cluster of tossup games, the kind that can swing the whole year from merely respectable to the sort of run that changes how OConnells tenure is judged. [Read more 🡒]
Vikings Fans Should Start Watching This Rising Quarterback Very Closely
Darian Mensah is the kind of quarterback Vikings fans can file away now and keep checking back on as the college season unfolds. After moving from Tulane to Duke and then landing at Miami, he arrives with a profile that has already started to draw attention around the draft conversation, built on real production and the sort of traits evaluators tend to chase.
Mensah has put together 6,696 passing yards and a 76.1% adjusted completion percentage, numbers that hint at both efficiency and growth potential. He is viewed as a dual-threat passer with good arm talent, vision and pocket presence, and if he keeps building on that foundation in Miami, he could become one of the more intriguing names for Minnesota fans to monitor when the NFL draft process heats up. [Read more 🡒]