On Friday, ESPN’s Randy Moss ended all the speculation about his health on an Instagram Live stream, detailing that a cancerous mass was found in his bile duct between his pancreas and his liver.
In the days following this admission, Moss has received countless messages of support from his peers in sports media, including a show of support from his cast mates on the Week 15 edition of Sunday NFL Countdown. Moss is of course a regular on the show before stepping away to focus on his health problems.
With just over a minute left in the Sunday Night Football matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks, Cris Collinsworth made it a point to send well wishes to Moss and his family during this trying time.
“Can we say hello and wish well to Randy Moss?” said Collinsworth. “Our friend, battling cancer as we speak. Just one of the greatest players in the history of our game. When he came on the scene — that guy just exploded on the scene. I’ve had a chance to work with him on a couple of different things. You just love being around him. He kinda had a reputation as a player of being kinda rough or whatever. Not at all, just not at all. Just thinking about you and praying for you.”
Mike Tirico responded in tune, sharing a story about Moss at Tom Brady’s Patriots Hall of Fame induction back in June before offering his thoughts and prayers for him.
“You know Cris, I had a chance to be up in Foxborough six months ago when they honored Tom Brady,” said Tirico. “And they filled the stadium. It was a great night. Randy Moss came out and before you could say a word, he got a standing ovation from the 200 ex-Patriots that were there and the entire Gillette Stadium. Just an appreciation for that great season with Tom and what he meant to them and means to a lot of folks around the league. Does a great job with the ESPN crew on Sundays. So Randy, we are praying for you and thinking of you man.”
This shoutout just shows how many people Moss has impacted not just as a player, but also as an ESPN analyst every Sunday.
Luckily, Moss appears to be recovering as well as possible after a six-hour surgery to remove the cancerous mass, and vows to be back on ESPN programming “soon”.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.