Santana Moss ‘Wasn’t Told, Period’ He’d Be Healthy Scratch for Redskins Season-Opener

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – When Santana Moss arrived at NRG Stadium ahead of the Redskins season-opener last Sunday, he discovered his jersey was missing from his locker.

For the first time in his 14-year NFL career, Moss had been designated a healthy scratch.

Finding out the way he did was “like no process I have ever experienced in my life,” he told 106.7 The Fan’s Chad Dukes on Tuesday.

“Honestly, man, it’s something that, you know, I’ve seen many guys that have dealt with this week in and week out, and I never knew what it felt like until I was a part of it,” he said.

The Redskins made some key additions at the receiver position – DeSean Jackson, Andre Roberts and 2014 fifth-round draft pick Ryan Grant are all new to the team – and after factoring in mainstays Pierre Garcon and Aldrick Robinson, Moss is competing against a loaded roster for the right to appear in uniform on Sundays.

“I really don’t have much to say about it,” Moss said. “It’s just that we’re all on this team, and there’s gonna be times that you’re not needed that day, and if they don’t need you, you won’t have a jersey in your locker.”

For Moss, the lone issue wasn’t finding out he’d been scratched, but rather how he found out.

“I really wasn’t told why, but I kind of knew,” he said. “I really wasn’t told, period, you know? But, just being me and keeping calm, and not trying to let the situation be about me – because it wasn’t about me. My thing is, I’m a part of this team, and it’s many guys that have to do that, come in on Sundays sometimes and they’re not up, because you might need another guy for this reason or that reason.”

And Moss, the consummate professional, even after his storied history with the franchise, doesn’t feel he deserves any special treatment.

“Just because I played so long and have been doing what I’ve been doing, it don’t make me an exception to have to get more or be told differently,” he said. “I was kind of curious, but I just let Sunday be Sunday, and let those guys go out there who had to work, who have the chance to go out there and get us a win. That’s what I was worried about. And then I kind of sort through and found out why I wasn’t up. It’s something that we all go through, and I’m just hoping not to have to go through it too many more times.”

If anything, not being needed Week 1 has motivated Moss. “I’m gonna look at the positives of it, and still go to work every day and show them that me not putting on that uniform last Sunday just kind of stirred up another little flame inside me, and I’m just gonna keep working hard.”

However, he does maintain he wishes he’d been warned ahead of time.

“It would have made me feel a little better about it, because if someone sat me down and said, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on,’ because, honestly, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it if anyone would have came and just told me straight out,” he said. “But I wasn’t told that way, so that’s why I said I didn’t want to make the situation more about me; I just wanted to let Sunday be Sunday, let us go out there and have the best chance we have to win, and then I ask questions later.”

“Yea, and then, being as you hadn’t been through anything like that, you didn’t know what to expect,” Dukes said.

“Yea,” Moss said. “And that’s the only thing that kind of ticked me off, because I hadn’t experienced it, and you hate to experience it the way I experienced it.”


(washington.cbslocal.com)