Sports

After a bout with bile duct cancer, Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss is ready to go for the 2025 season, when he'll return to his weekly job at ESPN.

“Man, I look forward to it,” Moss told TMZ.com, via AwfulAnnouncing.com. “I miss my crew. Greeny, Alex [Smith], Tedy [Bruschi]. But I really didn’t miss Rex Ryan much because he got on my nerves. Rex, if you are hearing this, I am coming back, so scoot over. . . . [W]e have a great group of guys that I work with that I tremendously missed for two months. ESPN accepted me with open arms, man, I just can’t wait for Week 1 to get back up there with the crew and talk football.”

Moss left the show in November for treatment. He had surgery in late November. He returned for ESPN's Super Bowl coverage.

“Just being able to experience that was nothing I wish on any man or any human being,” Moss said. “But for the fact that God took me through it and brought me out of it back healthy, being able to be back with my family, great support system, and some great doctors around me. Like I said, it was an emotional roller coaster, but the people I met on the way, I’m a blessed man. I’ll leave it at that."

It's great news for one of the all-time great players. No receiver had more talent than Randy Moss. Despite all the great receivers currently in the NFL, Randy Moss still has a magic and an aura that none since him have matched.

And he's from West Virginia. Which, as a West Virginian, has been a point of pride for a long time.

Twenty years after he was drafted by the Packers, quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a Steeler. He could have been a Steeler 20 years ago.

Appearing on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, former Steelers pro personnel director Doug Whaley said that, as Rodgers plunged through the first round, the Steelers were watching the situation.

“We wouldn’t have had to [trade up],” Whaley said, via Nick Farabaugh of PennLive.com. “We would’ve just sat there. We had him higher than that. We were surprised he was slipping.”

The Packers ended the slide at No. 24. The Steelers didn't pick that year until No. 30. (They took tight end Heath Miller.)

If Rodgers had been on the board at No. 30, what would the Steelers have done? They'd used a first-round pick in 2004 on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who helped the team to a 15-1 record and a berth in the AFC Championship.

Rodgers is the objectively better passer. But Roethlisberger won two Super Bowls. But Rodgers beat Roethsliberger in a Super Bowl.

And in the first Super Bowl won by the Steelers since the 1979 season, Roethlisberger didn't have a stellar day. He completed nine of 21 passes for 123 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions in the 21-10 win over the Seahawks. (He also rushed for 25 yards and a touchdown on seven attempts.)

What would Rodgers have done in Pittsburgh, as a rookie and beyond? We'll never know. But we will know how he does in 2025, four years after Roethlisberger retired.

Though the Chiefs won the AFC for the third consecutive season in 2024, quarterback Patrick Mahomes finished the year with a career-low 6.8 yards per attempt.

That signified how Kansas City’s offense was not able to stretch the field throughout the year.

Mahomes noted during the offseason program that the Chiefs plan to change that in 2025 with a healthy receiving corps. In an interview with Up & Adams this week, speedy second-year wideout Xavier Worthy reiterated that notion.

“Coach [Andy] Reid told us during OTAs, Phase I, ‘When you come back, get your hamstrings ready,’” Worthy said. “So, he kind of knew that we were going to be going a little deep in practice, so we kind of got our bodies and our minds ready [for] what we were going to be doing in practice.”

Playing long seasons over the last few years, Reid has let the players work remotely for Phase I before coming into the team facility in Phase II for in-person work.

But Reid also runs a notoriously tough training camp, so Worthy and the rest of Kansas City’s receivers will need to be in top shape for their first practices of the summer later this month.