Randy Moss and the NFL's drug testing regime

Hit and Run examines yesterday's news about former Viking Randy Moss and his not-very-surprising admission that he smokes marijuana:

It's fun to watch the stunned reax to Oakland Raiders wide receiver Randy Moss declaring that he has smoked pot in the past, and perhaps in the present, but without "abusing it." NFL officials, not to mention the sanctimonious scribes who shill for them, define all use as abuse. Yet the league only bothers to test players for pot during training camp, a tacit don't ask-don't tell policy for the in-season months and most of the off-season.

Moss obviously violated the don't tell part of this little pact, which for PR purposes maintains the fiction that the healthy, wealthy young men of the NFL differ significantly from their non-football playing peers in their recreational habits. Plus there is the little problem of Moss personifying a high-achieving occasional pot smoker who has yet to hit skid-row or otherwise help the terrorists win.

Accordingly, expect the hammer to drop on Moss, ASAP.

I've always had an ambivalent view of Moss: he's such an amazingly good athlete, and such a sad excuse for a normal human being. The man is arguably the best receiver in football today, and certainly one of the best of all time, but I'm afraid he has one of the worst attitudes going (although Terrell Owens is probably going to eclipse Moss in this regard).

While I'm sorry to see his stats meander over to Oakland, I think the Vikings are better off as a team without him.