Vikings ship Moss to Raiders for two picks, LB Harris

Team leaders Matt Birk and Daunte Culpepper confronted Moss after he walked off at Washington, and the organization's patience with the receiver seemed to dwindle in the past year or so.

"He's my good friend, but you almost get to thinking that maybe enough is enough," Culpepper said earlier this month at the Pro Bowl. "And maybe the Vikings organization has had enough."

Last year's transgressions were the latest in a long line of headline-grabbing negative behavior for Moss that included bumping a traffic control officer with his car in 2002, verbally abusing corporate sponsors on a team bus in 2001 and squirting an official with a water bottle in 1999.

But when he was focused and healthy on the field, there was no denying his considerable ability.

His 9,142 career receiving yards are the most by any player over his first seven seasons. The Vikings' offensive identity was built around Moss' uncanny ability to leap over smaller defensive backs to catch deep passes.

Moss burst into the league in 1998 and has been a big reason why the Vikings have sold out every game, including preseason, since he arrived. "The Freak" caught 17 TD passes -- many of them long, high-arching throws from Randall Cunningham -- to help lead the Vikings to the NFC championship game in his rookie season.

He had his best season in 2003 with 111 catches for 1,632 yards and 17 touchdowns.

He'll leave Minnesota as the only receiver in NFL history to start his career with six straight 1,000-yard seasons. Last year, he had 49 catches for 767 yards and 13 touchdowns.

But after the Vikings lost to Philadelphia in the playoffs this season, coach Mike Tice talked of molding the Minnesota into a running team.

Perhaps in a veiled reference to Moss, Tice also said the Vikings needed leaders to emerge.

"I've said many times before -- until the leadership takes over the locker room we're not going to make the big jump to where we need to be," Tice said in January. "The teams that are playing now -- New England and Philadelphia -- have tremendous leadership in their locker room. They take care of everything."

In Oakland, Moss will team with Jerry Porter to form a formidable receiving duo.

On Tuesday, the Raiders re-signed Porter to a five-year, $20 million contract.

DiTrapano said Moss was "very pleased to be going to Oakland and looking forward to playing with a team that's promised they're going to throw the ball deep a whole lot to him and having a chance at winning the Super Bowl."

"He doesn't leave Minnesota with any grudges," DiTrapano said. "It just was frustrating for him to lose."