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Before he was Carolina Panthers wide receiver Adam Thielen, he was Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen, and you can't think about Vikings wide receivers without thinking about Randy Moss. The Hall of Fame wideout announced on Friday that he is battling cancer, and on Sunday, Thielen paid tribute to his former franchise-mate.
Thielen rocked the iconic white and purple 84 jersey — ahead of the Panthers Week 15 matchup with the Dallas Cowboys — in honor of the HOF'er who started his illustrious career there. Moss played for Minnesota from 1998, when the team drafted the Marshall WR 21st overall, to 2004.
Randy Moss and Adam Thielen never overlapped with the Vikes. The current Panther showed up a decade later as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State in 2014. He played nine years for his home-state NFL team.
While they never played together Thielen and Moss will always be connected in the Vikings record books. Moss is second in franchise history in catches (587), receiving yards (9,316), and receiving touchdowns (92), all behind his former teammate, Cris Carter.
Thielen is up at the top of those lists as well. The two-time Pro Bowler has 534 receptions, 6,682 yards, and 55 touchdowns, good for third, fifth, and third in Vikings history, respectively.
The Panthers WR is just the latest in a long line of current NFL players who have sent well wishes to Randy Moss in one way or another following his cancer announcement. Despite retiring for good after the 2012 season, Moss has stayed in the public eye and NFL consciousness as an analyst on multiple ESPN shows. His Sunday pregame highlight reel of the best catches from around the football world has been especially impactful.
The name of the segment is “You Got Mossed,” which has become the common term for any time a person goes up and snags a crazy catch or makes a grab in someone else's face.
