The 2010 Randy Moss tour continues

If you look up the term ‘team player’ in the dictionary you will see a picture of Randy Moss inside of a circle with a big X drawn through it.  What NFL city will Moss grace his presence with next?  Historically he would be a good fit for the Raiders, who have thrived on providing second chances to the miscreants of the league, but there’s always the dysfunctional Washington Redskins — he’d fit in perfectly there. 

Moss, in a surprise move, was released by the Minnesota Vikings this afternoon.  The team has not yet provided an explanation, but it doesn’t take much imagination to figure it out.  He showed up for yesterday’s post-game news conference in a Boston cap.  This after a game vs the New England Patriots,a game in which he was seen quitting on plays (as is his wont) and generally appearing to be disinterested. 

In the sports world as long as you have talent there is a gig for you.  Not so in the jazz world.  There is a basic supply and demand premise that comes into play.  When I lived in New York there were a handful of great jazz musicians who hardly worked.  They played at an extremely high level guys and they were at the equal, if not better than their peers.  Yet, for one reason or another they had a hard time getting hired.  This was because there are so many great musicians and not all that much demand for them.  When gigs are in limited supply it becomes more important that they go smoothly, which means very low tolerance for being excessively late or getting drunk and high during the performance. 

I’m not implying that Randy Moss’s talent supersedes that of a jazz musician.  There are exponentially more people who can do what Moss does than what a first-rate jazz musician can do. There is, however, such an enormous demand for a player of Moss’s ability that he can get away with almost anything short of shooting himself in the leg.  Even at 3 + million dollars a game.  It’s remarkable, sad, and unfortunately, true.