Social Media: Randy Moss Retires
Athlete Websites
Loud-mouthed, diva and superstar wide receiver, Randy Moss will retire from the NFL
The seven-time Pro Bowler elected retirement over a 14th NFL season.
We’re not surprised at this exit, to be honest with you.
With diminishing skills that teams no longer thought were worth the headache that accompanied Moss, he probably threw a hissy fit and took his proverbial ball and went home.
Moss played for three teams in 2010 — he was traded from New England to Minnesota last October, waived by the Vikings in November before finishing out with Tennessee — and had his least productive season (28 catches, 393 yards, 5 TDs).
It’s befitting that he made his announcement through his agent. Moss never was shy about proclaiming his greatness but generally preferred to avoid any sort of questioning for his actions.
Moss, 34, was often linked to the New York Jets as a destination for 2011, but they signed WR Plaxico Burress yesterday.
What did surprise us is Moss’ historically quiet web presence.
Unlike fellow receivers Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens, who have been the face of the NFL on Twitter for their (sometimes overly) honest and strong opinions through tweets, Moss never jumped on that bandwagon.
In fact, we couldn’t even find an official Facebook account for the cowardly former wideout. He apparently does have a Twitter account (@r81m) that follows two people and hasn’t been updated since November and a website that appears to be updated through graphic and branding changes only.
It’s a shame, really, and allows for the void on Social Media to be filled by unofficial voices.
This is the chance for Moss to shine. To humble himself for once and thank his wonderful fans, yadda yadda, etc.
Instead, he’s gone with an announcement from his agent.
At the time of this writing, Twitter was still reacting to the news.
Most of the tweets mentioned how great Moss was on the field and how annoying he was off of it. There were a lot of unbelievers, too, who thought he would just pull a Brett Favre and be back the second another team would take him.
If he’s done, Moss’ career would rank among the greats but would be devoid of a Super Bowl ring. He was on a 15-1 (regular season) Minnesota team as a rookie that lost the NFC Championship Game in overtime to the Falcons and caught a go-ahead TD in Super Bowl XLII for the 18-1 Patriots, but Burress trumped him then, too, hauling in the game-winner for the Giants minutes later.
Athletes should take a lesson from the three receivers (Moss, Ochocinco, Owens). Be more real online than Moss but less annoying than Ochocino and Owens.
Many fans loved Moss.
It’s a shame he never gave them the ability to connect with him online.
About Cody Swann
Cody Swann is an entrepreneur, developer, strategist, banged up ex-football walk-on, retired body builder and former journalist born and raised in South Florida. He currently splits his time between his hometown of Stuart, FL and Los Angeles, CA. Cody founded Gunner Technology, a highly sought after digital agency, specializing in helping companies maximize profits through custom web development, technology efficiencies, social media strategy and search engine marketing.
As a manager and developer at ESPN for nearly six years, Cody led development and vision for two of ESPN’s most popular online features: Sports Scoreboards and GameCasts. Additionally Cody oversaw all aspects of MyESPN and ESPN’s social network, ESPN Fan Profiles. Cody worked with Technology, Editorial, Sales, Marketing and relevant business stakeholders to mold ESPN’s social media strategy, develop custom applications for it and execute it. Under his direction, ESPN successfully ported large portions of its core product from a proprietary Java stack to an open source Ruby on Rails stack, capable of standing up and performing under the tremendous load world's most popular sports site delivers.
Cody began forging his technological knowledge more than 10 years ago, developing and designing websites in college. His development work has included web development, web design, content writing, digital photography and digital video production for award-winning sites like Gainesville.com, GatorSports.com and ESPN.com. He has helped set digital strategy and direction for companies in the New York Times Regional Newspaper group, ESPN, ABC and Disney.
He is a recognized expert in web development, social media strategy, search engine optimization, conversion optimization, analytics tracking and business planning. He has worked with large interactive media companies to small and medium sized businesses. Cody motivates and inspires creative teams to deliver superb, polished work under tight deadlines.