Randy Moss and Barbara Boxer

Minnesota Vikings Receiver Randy Moss has received a lot of unfair criticism for leaving the sidelines with two seconds remaining in last Sunday’s game against Washington. Especially critical is Saint Paul of Fraters Libertas who linked to an obnoxious article at ESPN.com (of course, the article can’t resist bringing up Moss’s salary).

Here was the situation when Moss left the sidelines: the Vikings were behind by three, they were about to kick off to Washington, and there were only two (2) seconds left in the game. This all added up to one thing: THE GAME WAS OVER. The chance of the Vikings recovering an onside kick and stopping the clock in less than two seconds was practically zero. The fat lady had already sung and was now attacking the backstage buffet. Unless Moss was going to help the grounds crew pick up empty Gatorade cups, he had no reason to stick around.

The view that Moss should have hung around until the clock hit zero makes about as much sense as Barbara Boxer’s protest of the vote in Ohio. Sure, the Ohio vote wasn’t yet made official by Congress, and in theory, the results could have somehow been reversed, but realistically, this was not going to happen.

Unlike Randy Moss, Barbara Boxer was not smart enough to know when the game was over.