Report- Moss-weary Vikings to trade star receiver to Raiders

MINNEAPOLIS -- Randy Moss' electrifying talent was no longer enough for the Minnesota Vikings to put up with his distracting antics.

Dante DiTrapano, Moss' agent, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the Vikings and the Oakland Raiders had "come to an agreement on Randy playing for Oakland next year."

Neither the Vikings nor the Raiders would confirm the deal, which was first reported by The St. Paul Pioneer Press.

"We have had discussions with the Oakland Raiders, but there's nothing to announce," Rob Brzezinski, Minnesota's vice president of football operations, told The Associated Press.

Raiders spokesman Mike Taylor said, "I cannot comment on the deal specifically, however, this organization has always been tremendously aggressive and Randy Moss rates with the great players of all time. Great players want to play for the Raiders."

DiTrapano said he didn't know the terms of the deal, but the Pioneer Press reported the Vikings would get linebacker Napoleon Harris, along with the seventh overall pick and a late-round pick in the upcoming draft.

The deal cannot become official until March 2, the start of the NFL's fiscal year.

"It's just like any other contract. There's a meeting of the minds between the people who negotiate for the Vikings and the people who negotiate for the Raiders," DiTrapano said. "It just hasn't been reduced to writing and it won't be until March 2."

Moss is due to make $7.25 million next year. Harris is due to make $5.41 million.

Oakland's renegade owner Al Davis has long embraced combustible players and the vertical passing game, so adding Moss seems to be a perfect fit.

The timing of the move comes as a bit of a surprise with the Vikings in the midst of an ownership change. Red McCombs has agreed to sell the team to Arizona businessman Reggie Fowler, a deal that still needs to be approved by the NFL.

A spokeswoman for Fowler said it would be "inappropriate for Reggie to be commenting at this point" because McCombs still owns the team and is making all the decisions.

Trade rumors have surrounded the flamboyant Moss all offseason. He struggled with a hamstring injury, but still finished with 13 touchdown catches last season. He was fined $10,000 for pretending to pull down his pants and moon the Green Bay crowd during Minnesota's playoff win. He also drew criticism for leaving the field with 2 seconds left in a regular-season loss against Washington.

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."

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Dave Campbell, in Fort Myers, Fla., and Doug Glass, in Minneapolis, contributed to this report.