Jan/02/11 10:11 PM Filed in:
Santana MossToday's sign that we've really reached the winding-down portion of the season: players who are facing free agency being asked about their futures with the team. Nearly everyone in the locker room said that they still had plenty of football left and that they hoped to play that football here. It's what you'd hope to hear, what you'd expect to hear, and it often doesn't actually mean all that much.
But Santana Moss's declaration -- he's currently slated to be a free agent after this season -- was particularly heartfelt.
"I don't feel like leaving is going to help me win games somewhere else," Moss said, frankly. "I feel that, you know, somewhere that you are comfortable with, that you feel like you can play, and your family can live and, you know, you can raise your family and live comfortably, and play a great game, and play at a high level. You know, why leave? So that's why I feel the way I feel."
Moss actually expressed a sense of belonging here that I don't think I had every heard him mention before. "I just feel like once I became a Redskin, I felt like it was meant for me to be here," Moss said. "Once I got that opportunity to come here, you know-coming into the league in 2001, I heard that's where I was going anyway. The whole week leading up to it, they had me under Washington, Washington, Washington. For whatever reason, the Jets got me. And when I got a chance to come anyway, I was like, hey, maybe it was meant. And when the career has went the way it went here, when it comes to just having the success I've had here, you know, you kind of say, well this must be the team for me."
Moss's play this year certainly backs up the idea that he can still play, and even flourish in Kyle Shanahan's offense. With one catch on Sunday, Moss will set a new career high for receptions with 85. He's currently at 1,041 yards, which is his fourth highest yardage total in his ten NFL seasons, and he has six touchdowns -- there's no sign whatsoever that his game is declining. For me, I'd love to see Moss in a Redskins uniform again next season, but I'm mostly just shocked that it's already time to start talking about the offseason again.
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(redskins.com)