Randy being Randy

Is Randy Moss really happy to be back in Minnesota? Some Minnesota sportswriters are tweeting that he won’t talk to the locals.

Jeremy Fowler of the Pioneer Press says by league rules, Moss has to chat…

Since then, Moss has declined the last three interview requests. Players have the right to decline requests and don’t have to be available every day, but consistent evasion violates Appendix C, Section 4(a): “Player will cooperate with the news media, and will participate upon request in reasonable activities to promote the Club and the League.”

But the local ESPN radio affiliate — KSTP — says Moss is boycotting the locals:

“I don’t have any questions or answers for you, man,” Moss said in the locker room on Wednesday, continuing a media boycott that is entering its third week.

The mercurial receiver has spoken with reporters only three times since arriving in a trade from the Patriots on Oct. 6: at an introductory press conference the next day, after the Vikings’ loss to the New York Jets on Oct. 11 and in the locker room on Oct. 13.

The boycott — if it is that — is puzzling because most of the local sportswriter coverage of Moss when his trade from the New England Patriots was announced sounded as though it could have come directly from the public relations firm of Randy & Moss. Or, as the New England Sports Network noticed, “he was lobbed softball questions at his reintroduction to the Minnesota media.”

In Boston, meanwhile, the story line was that the media helped hound him off the Patriots. So today’s tweet from a writer for the Boston Herald raised at least two eyebrows:

Moss isn’t talking to the alleged friendly media, but he is talking to people from the old neighborhood?

Things haven’t gone well for Moss. He brought up his contract issue in New England to try to pressure the Patriots to come up with a contract extension. When he was traded to the Vikings, he not only didn’t get any additional money, he’ll end up playing an extra game for nothing (Moss didn’t get a “bye week”). The team he left is now 5-and-1 and tied with two other teams for the best record in the NFL. His new team is 2-and-4 and not playing well.

What’s more: Deion Branch, signed to replace Moss on the Patriots roster, has more yards receiving in both games he’s played with the Patriots than Moss has with the Vikings.

Moss plays against his old team on Sunday.